TODAY IN SCIENCE HISTORY ®  •  TODAYINSCI ®
Celebrating 24 Years on the Web
Find science on or your birthday

Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell ... whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index E > Albert Einstein Quotes > Belief

Thumbnail of Albert Einstein (source)
Albert Einstein
(14 Mar 1879 - 18 Apr 1955)

German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.



[Almost certainly not by Einstein.] The more I study science, the more I believe in God.
— Albert Einstein
No cited primary source has been found, so it is almost certainly falsely linked with Einstein. Also, it is not compatible with Einstein’s documented statements on his religious views. See, for example, the quote beginning “It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions….” The subject quote is included here so readers may find this disclaimer.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Einstein (101)  |  God (776)  |  More (2558)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Study (701)

A man who is convinced of the truth of his religion is indeed never tolerant. At the least, he is to feel pity for the adherent of another religion but usually it does not stop there. The faithful adherent of a religion will try first of all to convince those that believe in another religion and usually he goes on to hatred if he is not successful. However, hatred then leads to persecution when the might of the majority is behind it.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adherent (6)  |  Behind (139)  |  Belief (615)  |  Convince (43)  |  Convinced (23)  |  Faithful (13)  |  Feel (371)  |  First (1302)  |  Hatred (21)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Lead (391)  |  Least (75)  |  Majority (68)  |  Man (2252)  |  Never (1089)  |  Persecution (14)  |  Pity (16)  |  Religion (369)  |  Stop (89)  |  Successful (134)  |  Tolerant (4)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Try (296)  |  Usually (176)  |  Will (2350)

An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.
— Albert Einstein
In The World As I See It (1934), 240.
Science quotes on:  |  Attract (25)  |  Belief (615)  |  Coercion (4)  |  Degenerate (14)  |  Force (497)  |  Genius (301)  |  Invariable (6)  |  Italy (6)  |  Low (86)  |  Morality (55)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Oppose (27)  |  Passionately (3)  |  Reason (766)  |  Rule (307)  |  Russia (14)  |  Scoundrel (8)  |  See (1094)  |  Soon (187)  |  Succeed (114)  |  System (545)  |  To-Day (6)  |  Tyrant (10)

Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Blood (144)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Flesh (28)  |  Generation (256)  |  Scarcely (75)  |  Walk (138)  |  Will (2350)

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
— Albert Einstein
Cosmic Religion: With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Birth (154)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Evolution (635)  |  Factor (47)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  More (2558)  |  Progress (492)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Speaking (118)  |  Stimulation (18)  |  World (1850)

I believe in Spinoza’s God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Concern (239)  |  Doing (277)  |  Doings (2)  |  Fate (76)  |  God (776)  |  Harmony (105)  |  Himself (461)  |  Lawful (7)  |  Mankind (356)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Spinozas (2)  |  World (1850)

I believe no woman could have invented calculus.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Calculus (65)  |  Invent (57)  |  Woman (160)

I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Calm (32)  |  Contribute (30)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Affairs (6)  |  Judgment (140)  |  Objective (96)  |  Pipe (7)  |  Smoke (32)  |  Smoking (27)

I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman’s irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.
— Albert Einstein
Address at The Physical Society, Berlin (1918) for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research', collected in Essays in Science (1934) 2.
Science quotes on:  |  Air (366)  |  Apparently (22)  |  Art (680)  |  Belief (615)  |  Built (7)  |  Compared (8)  |  Contour (3)  |  Crudity (4)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dreariness (3)  |  Escape (85)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Everyday (32)  |  Everyday Life (15)  |  Eye (440)  |  Fetter (4)  |  Fetters (7)  |  Finely (3)  |  Freely (13)  |  High (370)  |  Hopeless (17)  |  Hopelessness (6)  |  Irresistible (17)  |  Lead (391)  |  Life (1870)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Motive (62)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Noisy (3)  |  Objective (96)  |  Pain (144)  |  Perception (97)  |  Personal (75)  |  Pure (299)  |  Range (104)  |  Restful (2)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Arthur Schopenhauer (19)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Shifting (5)  |  Silence (62)  |  Still (614)  |  Strongest (38)  |  Surrounding (13)  |  Tempered (2)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Trace (109)  |  World (1850)

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own–a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.
— Albert Einstein
From 'What I Believe: Living Philosophies XIII', Forum and Century (Oct 1930), 84, No. 4, 194. Article in full, reprinted in Edward H. Cotton (ed.), Has Science Discovered God? A Symposium of Modern Scientific Opinion (1931), 97.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Body (557)  |  Creation (350)  |  Death (406)  |  Enough (341)  |  Eternity (64)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feeble (28)  |  God (776)  |  Harbor (8)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humbly (8)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Individual (420)  |  Infinitesimal (30)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Life (1870)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Model (106)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Object (438)  |  Punish (8)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Reward (72)  |  Ridiculous (24)  |  Short (200)  |  Soul (235)  |  Structure (365)  |  Survive (87)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Try (296)  |  Universe (900)

I cannot seriously believe in it [quantum theory] because the theory cannot be reconciled with the idea that physics should represent a reality in time and space, free from spooky actions at a distance [spukhafte Fernwirkungen].
— Albert Einstein
Letter to Max Born (3 Mar 1947). In Born-Einstein Letters (1971), 158.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Belief (615)  |  Distance (171)  |  Free (239)  |  Idea (881)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reconciliation (10)  |  Represent (157)  |  Representation (55)  |  Space (523)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)

I do not believe in freedom of the will. Schopenhauer’s words: ‘Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills’ accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of freedom of will preserves me from taking too seriously myself and my fellow men as acting and deciding individuals and from losing my temper.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accompany (22)  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Awareness (42)  |  Belief (615)  |  Decide (50)  |  Do (1905)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Individual (420)  |  Lack (127)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lose (165)  |  Man (2252)  |  Myself (211)  |  Other (2233)  |  Painful (12)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Reconcile (19)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Schopenhauers (2)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Situation (117)  |  Temper (12)  |  Throughout (98)  |  Want (504)  |  Will (2350)  |  Word (650)

I do not believe that a moral philosophy can ever be founded on a scientific basis. … The valuation of life and all its nobler expressions can only come out of the soul’s yearning toward its own destiny. Every attempt to reduce ethics to scientific formulas must fail. Of that I am perfectly convinced.
— Albert Einstein
In 'Science and God: A Dialogue', Forum and Century (June 1930), 83, 374. Einstein’s dialogue was with James Murphy and J.W.N. Sullivan. Excerpted in David E. Rowe and Robert J. Schulmann, Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb (2007), 230. The book introduces this quote as Einstein’s reply when Murphy asked, in the authors’ words, “how far he thought modern science might be able to go toward establishing practical ideals of life on the ruins of religious ideals.”
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Basis (180)  |  Belief (615)  |  Destiny (54)  |  Do (1905)  |  Ethic (39)  |  Ethics (53)  |  Expression (181)  |  Fail (191)  |  Failure (176)  |  Formula (102)  |  Life (1870)  |  Moral (203)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nobler (3)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Reduce (100)  |  Reduction (52)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Soul (235)  |  Valuation (4)  |  Yearning (13)

I do not see any reason to assume that the heuristic significance of the principle of general relativity is restricted to gravitation and that the rest of physics can be dealt with separately on the basis of special relativity, with the hope that later on the whole may be fitted consistently into a general relativistic scheme. I do not think that such an attitude, although historically understandable, can be objectively justified. The comparative smallness of what we know today as gravitational effects is not a conclusive reason for ignoring the principle of general relativity in theoretical investigations of a fundamental character. In other words, I do not believe that it is justifiable to ask: What would physics look like without gravitation?
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Ask (420)  |  Assume (43)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Basis (180)  |  Belief (615)  |  Character (259)  |  Comparative (14)  |  Conclusive (11)  |  Consistently (8)  |  Deal (192)  |  Do (1905)  |  Effect (414)  |  Fit (139)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  General (521)  |  General Relativity (10)  |  Gravitation (72)  |  Heuristic (6)  |  Historically (3)  |  Hope (321)  |  Ignore (52)  |  Ignoring (11)  |  In Other Words (9)  |  Investigation (250)  |  Justifiable (3)  |  Justify (26)  |  Know (1538)  |  Late (119)  |  Look (584)  |  Objectively (6)  |  Other (2233)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reason (766)  |  Relativistic (2)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Rest (287)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Scheme (62)  |  See (1094)  |  Significance (114)  |  Smallness (7)  |  Special (188)  |  Special Relativity (5)  |  Theoretical (27)  |  Think (1122)  |  Today (321)  |  Understandable (12)  |  Whole (756)  |  Word (650)

I don’t believe in mathematics.
— Albert Einstein
A offhand remark when discussing the rigid rules of mathematics in a café conversation with engineer Gustave Ferrière. As quoted in Denis Brian, Einstein—A Life (1996), 76.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Mathematics (1395)

I even believe that those who consider themselves to be opponents of Mach barely know how many of his views they absorbed, in a manner of speaking, with their mother’s milk.
— Albert Einstein
Translation from obituary, 'Ernst Mach', Physikalische Zeitschrift (1 Apr 1916), 102. Einstein was pointing out how Mach as a science philosopher had influenced and continued to exert upon generations of physicists. Originally written in German, the subject quote is a translation into English. There are slight variations in wording in other translations. For example: “I believe that even those who consider themselves opponents of Mach are hardly aware of how much of Mach’s way of thinking they imbibed, so to speak, with their mother’s milk.” From the original German text: “Ich glaube sogar, daß diejenigen, welche sich für Gegner Machs halten, kaum wissen, wieviel von Machscher Betrachtungsweise sie sozusagen mit der Muttermilch eingesogen haben.”
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Ernst Mach (28)  |  Milk (23)  |  Mother (116)  |  Opponent (23)

In human freedom in the philosophical sense I am definitely a disbeliever. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying, that ‘a man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants,’ has been an inspiration to me since my youth up, and a continual consolation and unfailing well-spring of patience in the face of the hardships of life, my own and others. This feeling mercifully not only mitigates the sense of responsibility which so easily becomes paralysing, and it prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it conduces to a view of life in which humour, above all, has its due place.
— Albert Einstein
In The World As I See It (1934), 238.
Science quotes on:  |  Accordance (10)  |  Act (278)  |  Become (821)  |  Compulsion (19)  |  Conduce (2)  |  Consolation (9)  |  Continual (44)  |  Definitely (5)  |  Do (1905)  |  Due (143)  |  Easily (36)  |  Everybody (72)  |  External (62)  |  Face (214)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Freedom (145)  |  Hardship (4)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humour (116)  |  Inner (72)  |  Inspiration (80)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mitigate (5)  |  Necessity (197)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Patience (58)  |  People (1031)  |  Philosophical (24)  |  Place (192)  |  Prevent (98)  |  Responsibility (71)  |  Say (989)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Schopenhauers (2)  |  Sense (785)  |  Seriously (20)  |  Spring (140)  |  Unfailing (6)  |  View (496)  |  View Of Life (7)  |  Will (2350)  |  Youth (109)

It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher. Why then should it not be the right thing for the physicist to let the philosopher do the philosophising? Such might indeed be the right thing to do a time when the physicist believes he has at his disposal a rigid system of fundamental laws which are so well that waves of doubt can't reach them; but it cannot be right at a time when the very foundations of physics itself have become problematic as they are now … when experience forces us to seek a newer and more solid foundation.
— Albert Einstein
‘Physics and Reality’, Franklin Institute Journal (Mar 1936). Collected in Out of My Later Years (1950), 58.
Science quotes on:  |  Become (821)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Experience (494)  |  Force (497)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Justification (52)  |  Law (913)  |  Man (2252)  |  Men Of Science (147)  |  More (2558)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Poor (139)  |  Reach (286)  |  Right (473)  |  Rigid (24)  |  Seek (218)  |  Solid (119)  |  System (545)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Wave (112)  |  Why (491)

It is hard to sneak a look at God’s cards. But that he would choose to play dice with the world … is something I cannot believe for a single moment.
— Albert Einstein
On quantum theory. In Letter (21 Mar 1942) to his student-colleague, Cornel Lanczos. In Yale Book of Quotations (2006), 229. Also seen paraphrased as, “I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe.”
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Choose (116)  |  Dice (21)  |  God (776)  |  Hard (246)  |  Look (584)  |  Moment (260)  |  Play (116)  |  Single (365)  |  Something (718)  |  Universe (900)  |  World (1850)

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
— Albert Einstein
From Letter (24 Mar 1954) in Einstein archives. Quoted by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979, 2013), 43. Dukas was Einstein’s personal secretary for 28 years, so she knew his philosophy well.
Science quotes on:  |  Admiration (61)  |  Agnostic (10)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Course (413)  |  Deny (71)  |  Do (1905)  |  Express (192)  |  God (776)  |  Lie (370)  |  Never (1089)  |  Personal (75)  |  Read (308)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Something (718)  |  Structure (365)  |  Unbounded (5)  |  World (1850)

Nobody knows how the stand of our knowledge about the atom would be without him. Personally, [Niels] Bohr is one of the amiable colleagues I have met. He utters his opinions like one perpetually groping and never like one who believes himself to be in possession of the truth.
— Albert Einstein
Quoted in Bill Becker, 'Pioneer of the Atom', New York Times Sunday Magazine (20 Oct 1957), 52.
Science quotes on:  |  Amiable (10)  |  Atom (381)  |  Belief (615)  |  Niels Bohr (55)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Groping (3)  |  Himself (461)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Never (1089)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Perpetually (20)  |  Personally (7)  |  Possession (68)  |  Stand (284)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Utterance (11)  |  Without (13)

Now [Michele Besso] has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For us believing in physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
— Albert Einstein
Letter of condolence to the family of Michele Besso, his lifelong friend (21 Mar 1955). In Tabatha Yeatts, Albert Einstein (2007), 116. (Besso died on 15 Mar 1955. Einstein died 18 Apr 1955.)
Science quotes on:  |  Distinction (72)  |  Future (467)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Little (717)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Past (355)  |  Persistent (18)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Present (630)  |  Strange (160)  |  World (1850)

One has a feeling that one has a kind of home in this timeless community of human beings that strive for truth ... I have always believed that Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God the small group scattered all through time of intellectually and ethically valuable people.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Community (111)  |  Ethically (4)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  God (776)  |  Group (83)  |  Home (184)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Jesus (9)  |  Kind (564)  |  Kingdom (80)  |  Mean (810)  |  People (1031)  |  Scatter (7)  |  Small (489)  |  Strive (53)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Timeless (8)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Value (393)

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility or the meaning of such a comparison. But he certainly believes that, as his knowledge increases, his picture of reality will become simpler and simpler and will explain a wider and wider range of his sensuous impressions. He may also believe in the existence of the ideal limit of knowledge and that it is approached by the human mind. He may call this ideal limit the objective truth.
— Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics (1938), 33.
Science quotes on:  |  Approach (112)  |  Become (821)  |  Call (781)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Closed (38)  |  Compare (76)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Concept (242)  |  Creation (350)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Existence (481)  |  Explain (334)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Hear (144)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Mind (133)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Imagine (176)  |  Impression (118)  |  Increase (225)  |  Ingenious (55)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Limit (294)  |  Man (2252)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Mechanism (102)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Never (1089)  |  Objective (96)  |  Observation (593)  |  Observe (179)  |  Physical (518)  |  Picture (148)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Range (104)  |  Reality (274)  |  See (1094)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Trying (144)  |  Understand (648)  |  Watch (118)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)

Read no newspapers, try to find a few friends who think as you do, read the wonderful writers of earlier times, Kant, Goethe, Lessing, and the classics of other lands, and enjoy the natural beauties of Munich’s surroundings. Make believe all the time that you are living, so to speak, on Mars among alien creatures and blot out any deeper interest in the actions of those creatures. Make friends with a few animals. Then you will become a cheerful man once more and nothing will be able to trouble you.
— Albert Einstein
Letter (5 Apr 1933). As quoted in Jamie Sayen, Einstein in America: The Scientist’s Conscience in the Age of Hitler and Hiroshima (1985), 12. This is part of Einstein’s reply to a letter from a troubled, unemployed musician, presumably living in Munich.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Alien (35)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Become (821)  |  Cheerful (10)  |  Classic (13)  |  Creature (242)  |  Do (1905)  |  Find (1014)  |  Friend (180)  |  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (150)  |  Interest (416)  |  Immanuel Kant (50)  |  Living (492)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mars (47)  |  More (2558)  |  Munich (3)  |  Natural (810)  |  Newspaper (39)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Other (2233)  |  Read (308)  |  Speak (240)  |  Think (1122)  |  Time (1911)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Try (296)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  Writer (90)

Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the actions of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a supernatural Being.
However, it must be admitted that our actual knowledge of these laws is only imperfect and fragmentary, so that, actually, the belief in the existence of basic all-embracing laws in Nature also rests on a sort of faith. All the same this faith has been largely justified so far by the success of scientific research.
— Albert Einstein
Letter (24 Jan 1936) replying to a a letter (19 Jan 1936) asking if scientists pray, from a child in the sixth grade in a Sunday School in New York City. In Albert Einstein, Helen Dukas (ed.) and Banesh Hoffmann (ed.), Albert Einstein, The Human Side (1981), 32-33.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Actual (118)  |  Basic (144)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Event (222)  |  Everything (489)  |  Existence (481)  |  Faith (209)  |  Fragmentary (8)  |  Idea (881)  |  Imperfect (46)  |  Inclined (41)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Law (913)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  People (1031)  |  Prayer (30)  |  Reason (766)  |  Research (753)  |  Rest (287)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Success (327)  |  Supernatural (26)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)

Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit ... not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in what we believe is evil.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Cause (561)  |  Do (1905)  |  Enlighten (32)  |  Enlightened (25)  |  Evil (122)  |  Fight (49)  |  Most (1728)  |  Participation (15)  |  Political (124)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Strive (53)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Time (1911)  |  Use (771)  |  View (496)  |  Violence (37)  |  Whole (756)

The bigotry of the nonbeliever is for me nearly as funny as the bigotry of the believer.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Believer (26)  |  Bigotry (4)  |  Funny (11)  |  Nearly (137)

The desire for guidance, love, and support prompts men to form the social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, disposes, rewards, and punishes; the God who, according to the limits of the believer’s outlook, loves and cherishes the life of the tribe or of the human race, or even or life itself; the comforter in sorrow and unsatisfied longing; he who preserves the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral conception of God.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accord (36)  |  According (236)  |  Believer (26)  |  Cherish (25)  |  Conception (160)  |  Dead (65)  |  Desire (212)  |  Dispose (10)  |  Form (976)  |  God (776)  |  Guidance (30)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Life (1870)  |  Limit (294)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Love (328)  |  Moral (203)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Preserve (91)  |  Prompt (14)  |  Protect (65)  |  Providence (19)  |  Punish (8)  |  Race (278)  |  Reward (72)  |  Social (261)  |  Sorrow (21)  |  Soul (235)  |  Support (151)  |  Tribe (26)

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one … I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two thirds of the people of the Earth would be killed.
— Albert Einstein
In interview with Raymond Swing, 'Einstein on the Atomic Bomb' Atlantic Monthly, (Nov 1945), 176, No. 5, 43.
Science quotes on:  |  Atomic Bomb (115)  |  Atomic Energy (25)  |  Belief (615)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Create (245)  |  Do (1905)  |  Earth (1076)  |  Energy (373)  |  Exist (458)  |  Fight (49)  |  Kill (100)  |  Merely (315)  |  More (2558)  |  Necessity (197)  |  New (1273)  |  People (1031)  |  Problem (731)  |  Release (31)  |  Solve (145)  |  Two (936)  |  Urgent (15)  |  War (233)  |  Will (2350)

This is really the cornerstone of our situation. Now, I believe what we should try to bring about is the general conviction that the first thing you have to abolish is war at all costs, and every other point of view must be of secondary importance.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Abolish (13)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bring (95)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Cornerstone (8)  |  Cost (94)  |  First (1302)  |  General (521)  |  Importance (299)  |  Must (1525)  |  Other (2233)  |  Point (584)  |  Point Of View (85)  |  Really (77)  |  Secondary (15)  |  Situation (117)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Try (296)  |  View (496)  |  War (233)

We believe in the possibility of a theory which is able to give a complete description of reality, the laws of which establish relations between the things themselves and not merely between their probabilities ... God does not play dice.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Complete (209)  |  Description (89)  |  Dice (21)  |  Establish (63)  |  Give (208)  |  God (776)  |  Law (913)  |  Merely (315)  |  Play (116)  |  Possibility (172)  |  Probability (135)  |  Reality (274)  |  Relation (166)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thing (1914)

We now realize with special clarity, how much in error are those theorists who believe that theory comes inductively from experience.
— Albert Einstein
In section 3, 'The Field Concept', Physics and Reality (1936), collected in Essays in Physics (1950), 28.
Science quotes on:  |  Belief (615)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Inductive (20)  |  Realize (157)  |  Special (188)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)

When we survey our lives and endeavours we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Admit (49)  |  Advantage (144)  |  Alone (324)  |  Animal (651)  |  Beast (58)  |  Beast-Like (2)  |  Being (1276)  |  Belief (615)  |  Bind (26)  |  Birth (154)  |  Bound (120)  |  Build (211)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Clothes (11)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Comparable (7)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Create (245)  |  Degree (277)  |  Desire (212)  |  Direct (228)  |  Eat (108)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Food (213)  |  Grave (52)  |  Great (1610)  |  Greater (288)  |  Grow (247)  |  Hardly (19)  |  High (370)  |  House (143)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Human Society (14)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Individual (420)  |  Individuality (25)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Language (308)  |  Leave (138)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Material (366)  |  Medium (15)  |  Member (42)  |  Mental (179)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Observe (179)  |  Other (2233)  |  Owe (71)  |  Part (235)  |  People (1031)  |  Poor (139)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Principal (69)  |  Remain (355)  |  Resemble (65)  |  See (1094)  |  Significance (114)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Soon (187)  |  Spiritual (94)  |  Survey (36)  |  Thought (995)  |  Through (846)  |  Virtue (117)  |  Wear (20)  |  Whole (756)

You believe in the God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order in a world that objectively exists, and which I, in a wildly speculative way, am trying to capture. … Even the great initial success of the quantum theory does not make me believe in the fundamental dice-game, although I am well aware that our younger colleagues interpret this as a consequence of senility. No doubt the day will come when we will see whose instinctive attitude was the correct one.
— Albert Einstein
Letter to Max Born (7 Sep 1944). In Born-Einstein Letters, 146. Einstein Archives 8-207. In Albert Einstein, Alice Calaprice, Freeman Dyson, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2011), 393-394. Often seen paraphrased as “I cannot believe that God plays dice with the cosmos.” Also see a related quote about God playing dice on the Stephen W. Hawking Quotes page of this website.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Belief (615)  |  Colleague (51)  |  Complete (209)  |  Completion (23)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Dice (21)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Game (104)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Law (913)  |  Objective (96)  |  Order (638)  |  Quantum (118)  |  Quantum Theory (67)  |  See (1094)  |  Senility (2)  |  Success (327)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Trying (144)  |  Way (1214)  |  Will (2350)  |  World (1850)  |  Younger (21)

You make experiments and I make theories. Do you know the difference? A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.
Remark to Hermann F. Mark.
— Albert Einstein
As related by Herman F. Mark to the author. Quoted in Gerald Holton, The Advancement of Science, and Its Burdens, (1986), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Difference (355)  |  Do (1905)  |  Everybody (72)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Know (1538)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Person (366)  |  Something (718)  |  Theory (1015)


See also:
  • 14 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Einstein's birth.
  • Albert Einstein - Context of “God … integrates empirically” quote - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - Context of “Laws of mathematics refer to reality” quote
  • Albert Einstein - Context of “Laws of mathematics refer to reality” quote - with Large image (800 x 600 px).
  • Albert Einstein - Context of “God … integrates empirically” quote - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Mathematics…a product of human thought - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Mathematics…a product of human thought - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Large color picture of Albert Einstein (850 x 1000 px).
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Politics is more difficult than physics” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Politics is more difficult than physics” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - My Theory - The Times (1919).
  • Geometry and Experience - Address by Albert Einstein to the Prussian Academy of Sciences (27 Jan 1921).
  • Even Einstein's Little Universe Is Big Enough - New York Times article (2 Feb 1921).
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote The Lord God is subtle - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote The Lord God is subtle - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Imagination is more important than knowledge - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Imagination is more important than knowledge - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote A theory can be proved by experiment - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote A theory can be proved by experiment - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote That is relativity - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote That is relativity - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “One thing I have learned in a long life” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote One thing I have learned in a long life - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Why is the electron negative?” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Why is the electron negative?” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “The formulation of a problem is often far more essential than its solution” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “The formulation of a problem is often far more essential than its solution” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Our exalted technological progress” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “Our exalted technological progress” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “There exists a passion for comprehension” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “There exists a passion for comprehension” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “An equation is for eternity” - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
  • Albert Einstein - context of quote “An equation is for eternity” - Large image (800 x 600 px)
  • Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein, by Abraham Pais. - book suggestion.
  • Booklist for Albert Einstein.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:
Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Thank you for sharing.
- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


by Ian Ellis
who invites your feedback
Thank you for sharing.
Today in Science History
Sign up for Newsletter
with quiz, quotes and more.