Who would have thought around 1900 that in fifty years time we would know so much more and understand so much less.
But then, after all, we are all alike, for we are all derived from the monkey.
I never failed in mathematics. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.
The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion.
Matter is real to my senses, but they aren’t trustworthy. If Galileo or Copernicus had accepted what they saw, they would never have discovered the movement of the earth and planets.
The scientist is activated by a wonder and awe before the mysterious comprehensibility of the universe which is yet finally beyond his grasp. In its profoundest depths it is inaccessible to man.
To me it is enough to wonder at the secrets.
One can’t teach a cat not to catch birds.
Concern for man himself must always constitute the chief objective of all technological effort.
Insofar as we may at all claim that slavery has been abolished today, we owe its abolition to the practical consequences of science.
A mathematical equation stands forever.
Genius is making complex ideas simple, not making simple ideas complex.
We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence.
The cult of individual personalities is always, in my view, unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts variously among her children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed ones too, thank God, and I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unregarded lives.
Private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information. It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.
All men are ignorant, just in different fields.
The individual who has experienced solitude will not easily become a victim of mass suggestion.
A permanent peace cannot be prepared by threats but only by the honest attempt to create a mutual trust. However strong national armaments may be, they do not create military security for any nation nor do they guarantee the maintenance of peace.
The equation for ego is: One over Knowledge.
A man’s value to the community primarily depends on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows.