Like Hilbert, Einstein did his great work up to the age of forty without any reductionist bias. His crowning achievement, the general relativistic theory of gravitation, grew out of a deep physical understanding of natural processes. Only at the very end of his ten-year struggle to understand gravitation did he reduce the outcome of his understanding to a finite set of field equations. But like Hilbert, as he grew older he concentrated his attention more and more on the formal properties of his equations, and he lost interest in the wider universe of ideas out of which his equations arose. His last twenty years were spent in a fruitless search for a set of equations that would unify the whole of physics, without paying attention to the rapidly proliferating experimental discoveries that any unified theory would have to explain. I do not have to say more about ... Einstein’s lonely attempt to reduce physics to a finite set of marks on paper. His attempt failed as dismally as Hilbert’s attempt to do the same thing in mathematics. Freeman Dyson, The Scientist as Rebel, 2006
Einstein was a giant. His head was in the clouds, but his feet were on the ground. Those of us who are not so tall have to choose! Richard Feynman, cited Collective Electrodynamics: Quantum Foundations of Electromagnetism 2002
Einstein, the frizzy-haired,
Claimed E equals MC squared,
Which means mass decreases
As activity ceases ...
Not my mass, my ass declared! Michael R Burch
Everything about Quantum Theory revolted Einstein. Professor Michio Kaku
Albert Einstein was not afraid of new ideas. But during the 1920s the world of mechanics began to veer in a direction Einstein didn’t want to go. Brian Greene, Beyond the Cosmos: Quantum Leap
Albert Einstein – the icon of genius. His theory of general relativity is one of the greatest feats of thinking of nature to come from a single mind. Inside Einstein’s Mind: The Enigma of Space and Time, BBC 2015
A young Albert Einstein imagined a series of thought experiments that fundamentally altered our view of reality. ibid.
This concept that Time and Space are flexible depending on how you’re moving became known as Special Relativity. ibid.
What if gravity and acceleration are really the same thing? ibid.
What if Space/Time is shaped by matter? And that’s what we feel as gravity. ibid.
Was Albert Einstein’s genius somehow other worldly? Ancient Aliens s5e5: The Einstein Factor, History 2012
A human being is a part of the whole called by us ‘Universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind. Albert Einstein, letter 12 February 1950, cited and translated Calaprice
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. Albert Einstein
All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. Albert Einstein
All the fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no closer to answer the question, ‘What are light quanta?’ Of course today every rascal thinks he knows the answer, but he is deluding himself. Albert Einstein, cited Lam ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder and Beyond’
A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Albert Einstein
Any fool can know. The point is to understand. Albert Einstein, attributions & variations
Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. Albert Einstein
A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy? Albert Einstein
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as so far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality. Albert Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity, 1922
All the fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no closer to answer the question, ‘What are light quanta?’ Of course today every rascal thinks he knows the answer, but he is deluding himself. Albert Einstein, cited Lam ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder and Beyond’
As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. Albert Einstein
A man’s ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Albert Einstein, attributed
Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish. Albert Einstein
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth. Albert Einstein, letter to Jost Winteler, cited Highfield & Carter, The Private Lives of Albert Einstein
Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought. Albert Einstein
Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens. Albert Einstein, obituary for Ernst Mach, 1916
Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all. Albert Einstein, letter to US Army Colonel John Singleton Switzer 1953
Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. Albert Einstein, letter 7th January 1943
Don’t listen to their words, fix your attention on their deeds. Albert Einstein
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience. Albert Einstein, The Laws of Science and the Laws of Ethics, 1950
Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no-one idolized. Albert Einstein
Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas. Albert Einstein, Cosmic Religion, 1931
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper. Albert Einstein
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions. Albert Einstein, cited The New Quotable Einstein
Force always attracts men of low morality. Albert Einstein, The World As I See It
For every one billion particles of antimatter there were one billion and one particles of matter. And when the mutual annihilation was complete, one billionth remained – and that’s our present universe. Albert Einstein
From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of each other – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labours of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. Albert Einstein
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. Albert Einstein, letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, 1940
God is subtle but He is not malicious. Albert Einstein, Princeton University
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein