When a man, after long years of searching, chances upon a thought which discloses something of the beauty of this mysterious universe, he should not therefore be personally celebrated. He is already sufficiently paid by his experience of seeking and finding.
While I am a convinced pacifist there are circumstances in which I believe the use of force is appropriate – namely, in the face of an enemy unconditionally bent on destroying me and my people.
To be free means to be independent, not to be influenced by what others think and say.
People start their lives at last when they are able to live for something other than themselves.
The most difficult part about understanding something is that we understand it all.
A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicty of its premises is.
Watch the stars, and from them learn.
Except in mathematics, the shortest distance between point A and point B is seldom a straight line. I don’t believe in mathematics.
A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.
If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t know enough about it.
What I seek to accomplish is simply to serve with my feeble capacity truth and justice, at the risk of pleasing no one.
The harmony of natural law reveals an Intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
One feels the insignificance of the individual, and it makes one happy.
Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain and gaining new and wider views.
If a theory can not be explained to a child, then the theory is probably worthless.
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?
Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; It is its own reward. Everything else is in god’s hands. It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
I do know that kind fate allowed me to find a couple of nice ideas after many years of feverish labor.
In my personal experience I have hardly come to know the wretchedness of mankind better than as a result of the general theory of relativity and everything connected to it. But it doesn’t bother me.
My comprehension of God comes from a deeply felt conviction of a superior intelligence that reveals itself in the knowable world.