Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.
What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
Peaceful life and simplicity bring more happiness than success combined with constant restlessness.
Science Reality and Wonder
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality.
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
Nature conceals her secrets because she is sublime, not because she is a trickster.
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
Time and Relativity
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes; when you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That's relativity.
Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.
The faster you go, the shorter you are.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion.
Humanity Compassion and Ethics
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility.
As a human being one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
A human being is part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Without ethical culture there is no salvation for humanity.
Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours.
Peace Responsibility and Society
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.
I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
The pioneers of a warless world are the young men who refuse military service.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.
Force always attracts men of low morality.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism – how passionately I hate them.
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
Without 'ethical culture' there is no salvation for humanity.
Humility and Wisdom
The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don't know.
A true genius admits that he knows nothing.
As a human being one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to see clearly how inadequate that intelligence is.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Knowledge and ego are directly related: the less knowledge, the greater the ego.
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.
Purpose Success and Fulfilment
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.
A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead.
The ideals which have always shone before me are goodness, beauty, and truth.
The only real valuable thing is intuition.
Life Meaning and Perspective
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
A human being is part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space.
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilisation generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.
Strange is our situation here on Earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.