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: “Nature does nothing in vain when less will serve; for Nature is pleased with simplicity and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes.”
more quiz questions >>
Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index E > Albert Einstein Quotes > Experience

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.



[An outsider views a scientist] as a type of unscrupulous opportunist: he appears as a realist, insofar as he seeks to describe the world independent of the act of perception; as idealist insofar as he looks upon the concepts and theories as the free inventions of the human spirit (not logically derivable from that which is empirically given); as positivist insofar as he considers his concepts and theories justified only to the extent to which they furnish a logical representation of relations among sense experiences. He may even appear as Platonist or Pythagorean insofar as he considers the viewpoint of logical simplicity as an indispensable and effective tool of his research.
— Albert Einstein
In 'Reply to Critcisms', Paul Arthur Schilpp (ed.), Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 2, 684.
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Appear (122)  |  Concept (242)  |  Consider (428)  |  Describe (132)  |  Effective (68)  |  Empirical (58)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Free (239)  |  Furnish (97)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Spirit (12)  |  Idealist (5)  |  Independent (74)  |  Indispensable (31)  |  Invention (400)  |  Justify (26)  |  Logical (57)  |  Look (584)  |  Opportunist (3)  |  Outsider (7)  |  Perception (97)  |  Platonist (2)  |  Positivist (5)  |  Realist (3)  |  Relation (166)  |  Representation (55)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Seek (218)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Spirit (278)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Tool (129)  |  Type (171)  |  Unscrupulous (2)  |  View (496)  |  Viewpoint (13)  |  World (1850)

[Kepler] had to realize clearly that logical-mathematical theoretizing, no matter how lucid, could not guarantee truth by itself; that the most beautiful logical theory means nothing in natural science without comparison with the exactest experience. Without this philosophic attitude, his work would not have been possible.
— Albert Einstein
From Introduction that Einstein wrote for Carola Baumgardt and Jamie Callan, Johannes Kepler Life and Letters (1953), 13.
Science quotes on:  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Clearly (45)  |  Comparison (108)  |  Experience (494)  |  Guarantee (30)  |  Johannes Kepler (95)  |  Logic (311)  |  Lucid (9)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Matter (821)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Most (1728)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Science (133)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Possible (560)  |  Realize (157)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Work (1402)

A human being is 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. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
— Albert Einstein
In Letter (4 Mar 1950), replying to a grieving father over the loss of a young son. In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein’s Letters to and from Children (2002), 184.
Science quotes on:  |  Achieve (75)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Affection (44)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Being (1276)  |  Call (781)  |  Circle (117)  |  Compassion (12)  |  Completely (137)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Creature (242)  |  Delusion (26)  |  Desire (212)  |  Embrace (47)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Free (239)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Inner (72)  |  Kind (564)  |  Liberation (12)  |  Limit (294)  |  Limited (102)  |  Live (650)  |  Living (492)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Nobody (103)  |  Optical (11)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Part (235)  |  Person (366)  |  Personal (75)  |  Prison (13)  |  Rest (287)  |  Restrict (13)  |  Security (51)  |  Separate (151)  |  Something (718)  |  Space (523)  |  Strive (53)  |  Task (152)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  Time And Space (39)  |  Universe (900)  |  Whole (756)  |  Widen (10)

Body and soul are not two different things, but only two different ways of perceiving the same thing. Similarly, physics and psychology are only different attempts to link our experiences together by way of systematic thought.
— Albert Einstein
(1937). In Albert Einstein, the Human Side by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman (1979), 38.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Body (557)  |  Body And Soul (4)  |  Different (595)  |  Experience (494)  |  Link (48)  |  Perceive (46)  |  Physics (564)  |  Psychology (166)  |  Same (166)  |  Soul (235)  |  Systematic (58)  |  Thought (995)

Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Anthropomorphic (4)  |  Anyone (38)  |  Belong (168)  |  Call (781)  |  Character (259)  |  Common (447)  |  Community (111)  |  Conception (160)  |  Considerable (75)  |  Correspond (13)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Elucidate (4)  |  Endowment (16)  |  Entirely (36)  |  Especially (31)  |  Exceptional (19)  |  Exceptionally (3)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Find (1014)  |  Form (976)  |  General (521)  |  God (776)  |  High (370)  |  Individual (420)  |  Level (69)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Pure (299)  |  Rarely (21)  |  Religious (134)  |  Rise (169)  |  Stage (152)  |  Third (17)  |  Type (171)

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Axiom (65)  |  Differently (4)  |  Ethical (34)  |  Experience (494)  |  Find (1014)  |  Stand (284)  |  Test (221)  |  Truth (1109)

Here arises a puzzle that has disturbed scientists of all periods. How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality? Is human reason, then, without experience, merely by taking thought, able to fathom the properties of real things?
— Albert Einstein
From 'Geometry and Experience', an expanded form of an Address by Albert Einstein to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin (27 Jan 1921). In Albert Einstein, translated by G. B. Jeffery and W. Perrett, Sidelights on Relativity (1923).
Science quotes on:  |  Adapt (70)  |  Appropriate (61)  |  Arise (162)  |  Being (1276)  |  Disturb (31)  |  Disturbed (15)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fathom (15)  |  Human (1512)  |  Independent (74)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Merely (315)  |  Object (438)  |  Period (200)  |  Product (166)  |  Puzzle (46)  |  Reality (274)  |  Reason (766)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Thought (995)

I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Assert (69)  |  Behind (139)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  Drive (61)  |  Driving (28)  |  Experience (494)  |  Force (497)  |  Nobl (4)  |  Religious (134)  |  Research (753)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Strong (182)  |  Strongest (38)

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis of our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society. The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Accentuate (2)  |  Asset (6)  |  Become (821)  |  Being (1276)  |  Briefly (5)  |  Concern (239)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Constantly (27)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Crisis (25)  |  Dependence (46)  |  Deprive (14)  |  Deteriorate (3)  |  Deterioration (10)  |  Devote (45)  |  Drive (61)  |  Economic (84)  |  Egotistical (2)  |  Enjoyment (37)  |  Essence (85)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Find (1014)  |  Force (497)  |  Himself (461)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Being (185)  |  Indicate (62)  |  Individual (420)  |  Insecure (5)  |  Life (1870)  |  Lonely (24)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mean (810)  |  Meaning (244)  |  More (2558)  |  Moreover (3)  |  Naive (13)  |  Natural (810)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Organic (161)  |  Perilous (4)  |  Point (584)  |  Position (83)  |  Positive (98)  |  Prisoner (8)  |  Process (439)  |  Progressively (4)  |  Protective (5)  |  Reach (286)  |  Relationship (114)  |  Right (473)  |  Short (200)  |  Simple (426)  |  Social (261)  |  Society (350)  |  Suffer (43)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Threat (36)  |  Through (846)  |  Tie (42)  |  Time (1911)  |  Unsophisticated (2)  |  Weak (73)  |  Whatever (234)

In the light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion, and the final emergence into the light—only those who have experienced it can understand that.
— Albert Einstein
Quoted in Banesh Hoffmann and Helen Dukas, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1972), 124.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Alternation (5)  |  Anxious (4)  |  Attain (126)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Course (413)  |  Dark (145)  |  Emergence (35)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Experience (494)  |  Final (121)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Happy (108)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Intense (22)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Light (635)  |  Long (778)  |  Longing (19)  |  Matter (821)  |  Search (175)  |  Student (317)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Understand (648)  |  Year (963)

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.
— Albert Einstein
Address at Physical Society, Berlin (1918), for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 1.
Science quotes on:  |  Altar (11)  |  Ambition (46)  |  Angel (47)  |  Assemblage (17)  |  Belonging (36)  |  Both (496)  |  Brain (281)  |  Depletion (4)  |  Experience (494)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Intellect (251)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Joy (117)  |  Look (584)  |  Lord (97)  |  Love (328)  |  Motive (62)  |  Offer (142)  |  Other (2233)  |  Past (355)  |  People (1031)  |  Max Planck (83)  |  Power (771)  |  Present (630)  |  Product (166)  |  Purely (111)  |  Purpose (336)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Sense (785)  |  Special (188)  |  Sport (23)  |  Still (614)  |  Superior (88)  |  Temple (45)  |  Temple Of Science (8)  |  Time (1911)  |  Two (936)  |  Utility (52)  |  Various (205)  |  Vivid (25)  |  Why (491)

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 certainly true that principles cannot be more securely founded than on experience and consciously clear thinking.
— Albert Einstein
'The Goal' lecture at Princeton University (1939), quoted in Philipp Frank and George Rosen, Einstein (2002), 287.
Science quotes on:  |  Certainly (185)  |  Experience (494)  |  More (2558)  |  Principle (530)  |  Scientific Method (200)  |  Thinking (425)

It is difficult even to attach a precise meaning to the term “scientific truth.” So different is the meaning of the word “truth” according to whether we are dealing with a fact of experience, a mathematical proposition or a scientific theory. “Religious truth” conveys nothing clear to me at all.
— Albert Einstein
From 'Scientific Truth' in Essays in Science (1934, 2004), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  According (236)  |  Attach (57)  |  Clear (111)  |  Convey (17)  |  Different (595)  |  Difficult (263)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Meaning (244)  |  Nothing (1000)  |  Precise (71)  |  Proposition (126)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Scientific Theory (24)  |  Scientific Truth (23)  |  Term (357)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Word (650)

It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence in such a theory is certainly justified. There is less danger of going completely astray, particularly since it takes so much less time and effort to disprove such theories by experience. Yet more and more, as the depth of our knowledge increases, we must give up this advantage in our quest for logical simplicity in the foundations of physical theory...
— Albert Einstein
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950), 13. In David H. Levy (Ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 19.
Science quotes on:  |  Advantage (144)  |  Astray (13)  |  Basic (144)  |  Certainly (185)  |  Completely (137)  |  Concept (242)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Danger (127)  |  Depth (97)  |  Disprove (25)  |  Effort (243)  |  Experience (494)  |  Foundation (177)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Greater (288)  |  Hypothesis (314)  |  Increase (225)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  More (2558)  |  Must (1525)  |  Physical (518)  |  Proof (304)  |  Quest (39)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Time (1911)

Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
— Albert Einstein
Address at The Physical Society, Berlin (1918) for Max Planck’s 60th birthday, 'Principles of Research', collected in Essays in Science (1934, 2004) 3.
Science quotes on:  |  Best (467)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Do (1905)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extent (142)  |  Fashion (34)  |  Find (1014)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intelligible (35)  |  Life (1870)  |  Man (2252)  |  Narrow (85)  |  Natural (810)  |  Natural Scientist (6)  |  Order (638)  |  Overcome (40)  |  Painter (30)  |  Peace (116)  |  Personal (75)  |  Philosopher (269)  |  Picture (148)  |  Pivot (2)  |  Poet (97)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Scientist (881)  |  Security (51)  |  Speculative (12)  |  Substitute (47)  |  Suit (12)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Whirlpool (2)  |  World (1850)

Our experience up to date justifies us in feeling sure that in Nature is actualized the ideal of mathematical simplicity. It is my conviction that pure mathematical construction enables us to discover the concepts and the laws connecting them, which gives us the key to understanding nature… In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.
— Albert Einstein
In Herbert Spencer Lecture at Oxford (10 Jun 1933), 'On the Methods of Theoretical Physics'. Printed in Discovery (Jul 1933), 14, 227. Also quoted in Stefano Zambelli and Donald A. R. George, Nonlinearity, Complexity and Randomness in Economics (2012).
Science quotes on:  |  Ancient (198)  |  Certain (557)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connection (171)  |  Construction (114)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Discover (571)  |  Discovery (837)  |  Dream (222)  |  Enable (122)  |  Enabling (7)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Ideal (110)  |  Justification (52)  |  Key (56)  |  Law (913)  |  Mathematics (1395)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reality (274)  |  Sense (785)  |  Simplicity (175)  |  Thought (995)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Understanding (527)

Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.
— Albert Einstein
Out of my Later Years (1950, 1995), 98.
Science quotes on:  |  Attempt (266)  |  Diversity (75)  |  Enquiry (89)  |  Experience (494)  |  Sense (785)  |  System (545)  |  Thought (995)

The aim of science is, on the one hand, as complete a comprehension as possible of the connection between perceptible experiences in their totality, and, on the other hand, the achievement of this aim by employing a minimum of primary concepts and relations.
— Albert Einstein
H. Cuny, Albert Einstein: The Man and his Theories (1963), 128.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Aim (175)  |  Complete (209)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Concept (242)  |  Connection (171)  |  Experience (494)  |  Other (2233)  |  Possible (560)  |  Primary (82)  |  Totality (17)

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. It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque. The consciousness of this extraordinary state of affairs would be unbearable but for one great consoling thought: it is a welcome symptom in an age which is commonly denounced as materialistic, that it makes heroes of men whose ambitions lie wholly in the intellectual and moral sphere. This proves that knowledge and justice are ranked above wealth and power by a large section of the human race. My experience teaches me that this idealistic outlook is particularly prevalent in America, which is usually decried as a particularly materialistic country.
— Albert Einstein
From Mein Weltbild, as translated by Alan Harris (trans.), 'Some Notes on my American Impressions', The World as I See It (1956, 1993), 37-38.
Science quotes on:  |  Achievement (187)  |  Admiration (61)  |  Age (509)  |  Ambition (46)  |  America (143)  |  Bad (185)  |  Biography (254)  |  Boundless (28)  |  Character (259)  |  Children (201)  |  Consciousness (132)  |  Consoling (4)  |  Contrast (45)  |  Country (269)  |  Distribute (16)  |  Endowed (52)  |  Estimate (59)  |  Experience (494)  |  Extraordinary (83)  |  Fate (76)  |  Gift (105)  |  God (776)  |  Great (1610)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Race (104)  |  Individual (420)  |  Intellectual (258)  |  Justice (40)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Large (398)  |  Lie (370)  |  Live (650)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Moral (203)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Outlook (32)  |  Power (771)  |  Prove (261)  |  Quiet (37)  |  Race (278)  |  Rank (69)  |  Reality (274)  |  Select (45)  |  Sphere (118)  |  State (505)  |  Strike (72)  |  Superhuman (6)  |  Symptom (38)  |  Taste (93)  |  Thank (48)  |  Thought (995)  |  Usually (176)  |  View (496)  |  Wealth (100)  |  Welcome (20)  |  Wholly (88)

The efforts of most human-beings are consumed in the struggle for their daily bread, but most of those who are, either through fortune or some special gift, relieved of this struggle are largely absorbed in further improving their worldly lot. Beneath the effort directed toward the accumulation of worldly goods lies all too frequently the illusion that this is the most substantial and desirable end to be achieved; but there is, fortunately, a minority composed of those who recognize early in their lives that the most beautiful and satisfying experiences open to humankind are not derived from the outside, but are bound up with the development of the individual's own feeling, thinking and acting. The genuine artists, investigators and thinkers have always been persons of this kind. However inconspicuously the life of these individuals runs its course, none the less the fruits of their endeavors are the most valuable contributions which one generation can make to its successors.
— Albert Einstein
In letter (1 May 1935), Letters to the Editor, 'The Late Emmy Noether: Professor Einstein Writes in Appreciation of a Fellow-Mathematician', New York Times (4 May 1935), 12.
Science quotes on:  |  Absorb (54)  |  Accumulation (51)  |  Acting (6)  |  Artist (97)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Being (1276)  |  Beneath (68)  |  Bound (120)  |  Bread (42)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Course (413)  |  Daily (91)  |  Derivation (15)  |  Desirable (33)  |  Development (441)  |  Direct (228)  |  Early (196)  |  Effort (243)  |  End (603)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fortunately (9)  |  Fortune (50)  |  Fruit (108)  |  Generation (256)  |  Genuine (54)  |  Gift (105)  |  Good (906)  |  Human (1512)  |  Humankind (15)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Inconspicuous (4)  |  Individual (420)  |  Investigator (71)  |  Kind (564)  |  Lie (370)  |  Life (1870)  |  Live (650)  |  Lot (151)  |  Minority (24)  |  Most (1728)  |  Emmy Noether (7)  |  Nonetheless (2)  |  Open (277)  |  Outside (141)  |  Person (366)  |  Recognition (93)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Run (158)  |  Satisfaction (76)  |  Special (188)  |  Struggle (111)  |  Substantial (24)  |  Successor (16)  |  Thinker (41)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Through (846)  |  Value (393)

The fact that man produces a concept ‘I’ besides the totality of his mental and emotional experiences or perceptions does not prove that there must be any specific existence behind such a concept. We are succumbing to illusions produced by our self-created language, without reaching a better understanding of anything. Most of so-called philosophy is due to this kind of fallacy.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Behind (139)  |  Better (493)  |  Call (781)  |  Concept (242)  |  Due (143)  |  Emotional (17)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fact (1257)  |  Fallacy (31)  |  Illusion (68)  |  Kind (564)  |  Language (308)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mental (179)  |  Most (1728)  |  Must (1525)  |  Perception (97)  |  Philosophy (409)  |  Produce (117)  |  Produced (187)  |  Prove (261)  |  Reach (286)  |  Self (268)  |  So-Called (71)  |  Specific (98)  |  Succumb (6)  |  Totality (17)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery–even if mixed with fear–that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms–it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man.
— Albert Einstein
From 'What I Believe: Living Philosophies XIII', Forum and Century (Oct 1930), 84, No. 4, 193-194. Alan Harris (trans.), The World as I See It (1956, 1993), 5.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Alone (324)  |  Amazement (19)  |  Art (680)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Candle (32)  |  Constitute (99)  |  Cradle (19)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feel (371)  |  Form (976)  |  Fundamental (264)  |  Good (906)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Man (2252)  |  Manifestation (61)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Penetrate (68)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Reason (766)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Sense (785)  |  Something (718)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  True Science (25)  |  Truly (118)  |  Wonder (251)

The final results [of work on the theory of relativity] appear almost simple; any intelligent undergraduate can understand them without much trouble. But the years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels, but cannot express; the intense effort and the alternations of confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.
— Albert Einstein
Concluding remark of George Gibson lecture at the University of Glasgow, 'The Origins of the General Theory of Relativity', (20 Jun 1933). Published by Glasgow University as The Origins of the General Theory of Relativity: Being the First Lecture on the George A. Gibson Foundation in the University of Glasgow, Delivered on June 20th, 1933 (1933), 11. Also quoted in 'No Hitching Posts' The Atlantic (1936), 157, 251.
Science quotes on:  |  Alternation (5)  |  Appear (122)  |  Break (109)  |  Clarity (49)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Dark (145)  |  Effort (243)  |  Experience (494)  |  Express (192)  |  Feel (371)  |  Final (121)  |  Himself (461)  |  Intelligent (108)  |  Intense (22)  |  Know (1538)  |  Known (453)  |  Misgiving (3)  |  Relativity (91)  |  Research (753)  |  Result (700)  |  Search (175)  |  Simple (426)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  Through (846)  |  Trouble (117)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Understand (648)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Work (1402)  |  Year (963)

The importance of C.F. Gauss for the development of modern physical theory and especially for the mathematical fundament of the theory of relativity is overwhelming indeed; also his achievement of the system of absolute measurement in the field of electromagnetism. In my opinion it is impossible to achieve a coherent objective picture of the world on the basis of concepts which are taken more or less from inner psychological experience.
— Albert Einstein
Quoted in G. Waldo Dunnington, Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science (2004), 350.
Science quotes on:  |  Absolute (153)  |  Achievement (187)  |  Basis (180)  |  Concept (242)  |  Development (441)  |  Electromagnetism (19)  |  Experience (494)  |  Field (378)  |  Carl Friedrich Gauss (79)  |  Importance (299)  |  Impossible (263)  |  Indeed (323)  |  Inner (72)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Modern (402)  |  More (2558)  |  More Or Less (71)  |  Objective (96)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Overwhelming (30)  |  Physical (518)  |  Picture (148)  |  Psychological (42)  |  Relativity (91)  |  System (545)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Theory Of Relativity (33)  |  World (1850)

The individual feels the futility of human desires and aims and the sublimity and marvelous order which reveal themselves both in nature and in the world of thought. Individual existence impresses him as a sort of prison and he wants to experience the universe as a single significant whole. The beginnings of cosmic religious feeling already appear at an early stage of development, e.g., in many of the Psalms of David and in some of the Prophets. Buddhism, as we have learned especially from the wonderful writings of Schopenhauer, contains a much stronger element of this. The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Aim (175)  |  Akin (5)  |  Already (226)  |  Appear (122)  |  Atheist (16)  |  Base (120)  |  Beginning (312)  |  Beginnings (5)  |  Both (496)  |  Buddhism (4)  |  Case (102)  |  Central (81)  |  Church (64)  |  Closely (12)  |  Conceive (100)  |  Contain (68)  |  Contemporary (33)  |  Cosmic (74)  |  David (6)  |  Democritus of Abdera (17)  |  Desire (212)  |  Development (441)  |  Distinguish (168)  |  Distinguished (84)  |  Dogma (49)  |  Early (196)  |  Element (322)  |  Especially (31)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feel (371)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Fill (67)  |  Find (1014)  |  Francis (2)  |  Futility (7)  |  Genius (301)  |  God (776)  |  Heretic (8)  |  High (370)  |  Human (1512)  |  Image (97)  |  Impress (66)  |  Individual (420)  |  Kind (564)  |  Know (1538)  |  Learn (672)  |  Learned (235)  |  Light (635)  |  Look (584)  |  Man (2252)  |  Marvelous (31)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Order (638)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Prison (13)  |  Prophet (22)  |  Psalm (3)  |  Regard (312)  |  Religious (134)  |  Reveal (152)  |  Saint (17)  |  Schopenhauer (6)  |  Significant (78)  |  Single (365)  |  Sometimes (46)  |  Sort (50)  |  Spinoza (11)  |  Stage (152)  |  Strong (182)  |  Stronger (36)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Teaching (190)  |  Teachings (11)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Universe (900)  |  Want (504)  |  Whole (756)  |  Wonderful (155)  |  World (1850)  |  Writing (192)  |  Writings (6)

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Behind (139)  |  Blind (98)  |  Dead (65)  |  Deep (241)  |  Endeavor (74)  |  Endeavour (63)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeble (28)  |  Grasp (65)  |  Indirectly (7)  |  Least (75)  |  Man (2252)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Never (1089)  |  Principle (530)  |  Reach (286)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religion (369)  |  Religiousness (3)  |  Seem (150)  |  Sense (785)  |  Serious (98)  |  Something (718)  |  Sublimity (6)  |  Underlying (33)

The most beautiful and profound experience for a person is the feeling of the mysterious. It underlies religion and all deeper endeavors in art and science. Anyone who has not experienced this appears to me, if not like a dead man, at least like a blind man. To feel that behind the perceptible is hidden something that is incomprehensible, whose beauty and grandeur only reach us indirectly and in a dim reflection—that is religiousness. In that sense I am religious. It is enough for me to sense these secrets with wonder and to try to humbly grasp a faint image of the majestic structure of all things.
— Albert Einstein
From His 'Credo' on a manuscript in German (Aug 1932) which he read for a sound recording (c. end Sep/early Oct 1932) for limited distribution on a 20 cm, 75 rpm shellac disk, by order and to benefit of the German League of Human Rights. Manuscript held by the Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Original text, in German, “Das Schönste und Tiefste, was der Mensch erleben kann, ist das Gefühl des Geheimnisvollen. Es liegt der Religion sowie allem tieferen Streben in Kunst und Wissenschaft zugrunde. Wer dies nicht erlebt hat, erscheint mir, wenn nicht wie ein Toter, so doch wie ein Blinder. Zu empfinden, dass hinter dem Erlebbaren ein für unseren Geist Unerreichbares verborgen sei, dessen Schönheit und Erhabenheit uns nur mittelbar und in schwachem Widerschein erreicht, das ist Religiosität. In diesem Sinne bin ich religiös. Es ist mir genug, diese Geheimnisse staunend zu ahnen und zu versuchen, von der erhabenen Struktur des Seienden in Demut ein mattes Abbild geistig zu erfassen.” Translated to English using Google Translate and other online tools—and tweaked by Webmaster.
Science quotes on:  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Experience (494)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Grandeur (35)  |  Incomprehensible (31)  |  Majestic (17)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Perceptible (7)  |  Reflection (93)  |  Religious (134)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Secret (216)  |  Structure (365)  |  Wonder (251)

The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men.
— Albert Einstein
As quoted in Philip Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times (1947), chap. 12, sec. 5 - “Einstein’s Attitude Toward Religion.”
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Belong (168)  |  Center (35)  |  Comprehension (69)  |  Death (406)  |  Dull (58)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Exist (458)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Faculty (76)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Form (976)  |  Good (906)  |  Impenetrable (7)  |  Know (1538)  |  Knowledge (1647)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mystical (9)  |  Power (771)  |  Primitive (79)  |  Radiant (15)  |  Rank (69)  |  Rapt (5)  |  Religious (134)  |  Religiousness (3)  |  Science And Art (195)  |  Science And Religion (337)  |  Sense (785)  |  Stand (284)  |  Stranger (16)  |  True (239)  |  Wisdom (235)  |  Wonder (251)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
— Albert Einstein
'The World As I See It', Forum and Century Oct 1930), 84, 193-194. Albert Einstein and Carl Seelig. Ideas and Opinions, based on Mein Weltbild (1954), 11.
Science quotes on:  |  Art (680)  |  Awe (43)  |  Beautiful (271)  |  Beauty (313)  |  Closed (38)  |  Emotion (106)  |  Experience (494)  |  Eye (440)  |  Good (906)  |  Most (1728)  |  Mysterious (83)  |  Mystery (188)  |  Stand (284)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wonder (251)

The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an inexorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says “Yes” to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says “Maybe,” and in the great majority of cases simply “No.” If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter “Maybe,” and if it does not agree it means “No.” Probably every theory will someday experience its “No”—most theories, soon after conception.
— Albert Einstein
In Albert Einstein: The Human Side by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann (1979).
Science quotes on:  |  Conception (160)  |  Experience (494)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Favorable (24)  |  Great (1610)  |  Inexorable (10)  |  Judge (114)  |  Majority (68)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  More (2558)  |  Most (1728)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Never (1089)  |  Precisely (93)  |  Say (989)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Someday (15)  |  Soon (187)  |  Theorist (44)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Adequate (50)  |  Basic (144)  |  Data (162)  |  Datum (3)  |  Element (322)  |  Experience (494)  |  Goal (155)  |  Irreducible (7)  |  Possible (560)  |  Representation (55)  |  Simple (426)  |  Single (365)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Surrender (21)  |  Theory (1015)

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. In this methodological uncertainty, one might suppose that there were any number of possible systems of theoretical physics all equally well justified; and this opinion is no doubt correct, theoretically. But the development of physics has shown that at any given moment, out of all conceivable constructions, a single one has always proved itself decidedly superior to all the rest.
— Albert Einstein
Address (1918) for Max Planck's 60th birthday, at Physical Society, Berlin, 'Principles of Research' in Essays in Science (1934), 4.
Science quotes on:  |  Conceivable (28)  |  Construction (114)  |  Cosmos (64)  |  Deduction (90)  |  Development (441)  |  Doubt (314)  |  Elementary (98)  |  Equally (129)  |  Experience (494)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Law (913)  |  Logic (311)  |  Moment (260)  |  Number (710)  |  Opinion (291)  |  Path (159)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physicist (270)  |  Physics (564)  |  Possible (560)  |  Pure (299)  |  Reach (286)  |  Rest (287)  |  Single (365)  |  Superior (88)  |  Suppose (158)  |  Supreme (73)  |  Sympathetic (10)  |  System (545)  |  Task (152)  |  Theoretical Physics (26)  |  Uncertainty (58)  |  Understanding (527)  |  Universal (198)

The theoretical idea … does not arise apart from and independent of experience; nor can it be derived from experience by a purely logical procedure. It is produced by a creative act. Once a theoretical idea has been acquired, one does well to hold fast to it until it leads to an untenable conclusion.
— Albert Einstein
'On the Generalized Theory of Gravitation', Scientific American (Apr 1950). Collected in David H. Levy (ed.), The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos (2000), 14.
Science quotes on:  |  Acquired (77)  |  Act (278)  |  Arise (162)  |  Conclusion (266)  |  Creative (144)  |  Creativity (84)  |  Experience (494)  |  Hold (96)  |  Idea (881)  |  Lead (391)  |  Procedure (48)  |  Produced (187)  |  Purely (111)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Untenable (5)

Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Analyse (4)  |  Authority (99)  |  Become (821)  |  Break (109)  |  Broken (56)  |  Circumstance (139)  |  Circumstances (108)  |  Commonplace (24)  |  Concept (242)  |  Depend (238)  |  Excessive (24)  |  Experience (494)  |  Game (104)  |  Givens (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Idle (34)  |  Individually (2)  |  Justification (52)  |  Long (778)  |  Mean (810)  |  Means (587)  |  Practice (212)  |  Show (353)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Will (2350)

These were errors in thinking which caused me two years of hard work before at last, in 1915, I recognised them as such. … The final results appear almost simple; any intelligent undergraduate can understand them without much trouble. But the years of searching in the dark for a truth that one feels, but cannot express; the intense desire and the alternations of confidence and misgiving, until one breaks through to clarity and understanding, are only known to him who has himself experienced them.
— Albert Einstein
From address, 'Notes on the Origin of the General Theory of Relativity', part of the collection of essays in Mein Weltbild (1934), translated from the original German. This translation as quoted in W.I.B. Beveridge, The Art of Scientific Investigation (1957), 60. Another translation is given on this web page, beginning: “These were errors of thought…”.
Science quotes on:  |  Clarity (49)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Dark (145)  |  Desire (212)  |  Error (339)  |  Experience (494)  |  Expressing (3)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Misgiving (3)  |  Recognise (14)  |  Result (700)  |  Searching (7)  |  Simple (426)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Truth (1109)  |  Undergraduate (17)  |  Understand (648)

These were errors of thought which cost me two years of excessively hard work, until I finally recognized them as such at the end of 1915, and after having ruefully returned to the Riemannian curvature, succeeded in linking the theory with the facts of astronomical experience.
In the light of knowledge attained, the happy achievement seems almost a matter of course, and any intelligent student can grasp it without too much trouble. But the years of anxious searching in the dark, with their intense longing, their alternations of confidence and exhaustion and the final emergence into the light—only those who have experienced it can understand it.
— Albert Einstein
From address, 'Notes on the Origin of the General Theory of Relativity', part of the collection of essays in Mein Weltbild (1934). Translation from the original German by Sonja Bargmann, in Ideas And Opinions (1954), 289-290.
Science quotes on:  |  Astronomy (251)  |  Confidence (75)  |  Error (339)  |  Exhaustion (18)  |  Hard Work (25)  |  Searching (7)  |  Theory (1015)  |  Thought (995)

This change in the conception of reality is the most profound and the most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton.
Refering to James Clerk Maxwell's contributions to physics.
— Albert Einstein
'Maxwell's Influence on the Development of the Conception of Physical Reality', James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemorative Volume 1831-1931 (1931), 71.
Science quotes on:  |  Change (639)  |  Clerk (13)  |  Conception (160)  |  Contribution (93)  |  Electrodynamics (10)  |  Fruitful (61)  |  Maxwell (42)  |  James Clerk Maxwell (91)  |  Most (1728)  |  Sir Isaac Newton (363)  |  Physic (515)  |  Physics (564)  |  Profound (105)  |  Reality (274)  |  Time (1911)

Albert Einstein quote: Mistrust of every kind of authority
Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true. The consequence was a positively fanatic [orgy of] freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is intentionally being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression. Mistrust of every kind of authority grew out of this experience, a skeptical attitude toward the convictions that were alive in any specific social environment–an attitude that has never again left me, even though, later on, it has been tempered by a better insight into the causal connections.
— Albert Einstein
In P. A. Schilpp, (ed.), Part I, 'Autobiographical Notes', Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949, 1959), Vol. 1, 5. Translated by the P.A. Schilpp, from Einstein’s original German manuscript, written at age 67, (p.2, 4): “Durch Lesen populärwissenschaftlicher Bücher kam ich bald zu der Ueberzeugung, dass vieles in den Erzählungen der Bibel nicht wahr sein konnte. Die Folge war eine geradezu fanatische Freigeisterei, verbunden mit dem Eindruck, dass die Jugend vom Staate mit Vorbedacht belogen wird; es war ein niederschmetternder Eindruck. Das Misstrauen gegen jede Art Autorität erwuchs aus diesem Erlebnis, eine skeptische Einstellung gegen die Ueberzeugungen, welche in der jeweiligen sozialen Umwelt lebendig waren—eine Einstellung, die mich nicht wieder verlassen hat, wenn sie auch später durch bessere Einsicht in die kausalen Zusammenhänge ihre ursprünglische Schärfe verloren haben.”.
Science quotes on:  |  Alive (97)  |  Attitude (84)  |  Author (175)  |  Being (1276)  |  Better (493)  |  Bible (105)  |  Book (413)  |  Causal (7)  |  Connection (171)  |  Consequence (220)  |  Conviction (100)  |  Couple (9)  |  Crush (19)  |  Deceive (26)  |  Environment (239)  |  Experience (494)  |  Fanatic (7)  |  Freethinking (2)  |  Grow (247)  |  Impression (118)  |  Insight (107)  |  Intentionally (3)  |  Kind (564)  |  Late (119)  |  Leave (138)  |  Lie (370)  |  Mistrust (4)  |  Never (1089)  |  Orgy (3)  |  Popular (34)  |  Positively (4)  |  Reach (286)  |  Read (308)  |  Reading (136)  |  Scientific (955)  |  Skeptical (21)  |  Social (261)  |  Soon (187)  |  Specific (98)  |  State (505)  |  Story (122)  |  Temper (12)  |  Through (846)  |  Toward (45)  |  True (239)  |  Youth (109)

We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals. We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual’s instinct for self preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man’s actions. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us. Though our conduct seems so very different from that of the higher animals, the primary instincts are much alike in them and in us. The most evident difference springs from the important part which is played in man by a relatively strong power of imagination and by the capacity to think, aided as it is by language and other symbolical devices. Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions. In that way imagination and intelligence enter into our existence in the part of servants of the primary instincts. But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Act (278)  |  Action (342)  |  Aid (101)  |  Alike (60)  |  Animal (651)  |  Being (1276)  |  Capacity (105)  |  Causal (7)  |  Cease (81)  |  Claim (154)  |  Conduct (70)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Death (406)  |  Describe (132)  |  Desire (212)  |  Device (71)  |  Difference (355)  |  Different (595)  |  Do (1905)  |  Easily (36)  |  Elemental (4)  |  Enter (145)  |  Escape (85)  |  Evident (92)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Factor (47)  |  Fear (212)  |  Feeling (259)  |  Feelings (52)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Force (497)  |  General (521)  |  Hate (68)  |  High (370)  |  Hunger (23)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Immediate (98)  |  Important (229)  |  Impulse (52)  |  Individual (420)  |  Inner (72)  |  Instinct (91)  |  Intelligence (218)  |  Intersect (5)  |  Intervention (18)  |  Intuition (82)  |  Know (1538)  |  Language (308)  |  Less (105)  |  Love (328)  |  Man (2252)  |  Merely (315)  |  Most (1728)  |  Move (223)  |  Need (320)  |  Organize (33)  |  Other (2233)  |  Ourselves (247)  |  Pain (144)  |  Part (235)  |  Pity (16)  |  Play (116)  |  Pleasant (22)  |  Power (771)  |  Powerful (145)  |  Preservation (39)  |  Pride (84)  |  Primary (82)  |  Race (278)  |  Relation (166)  |  Relatively (8)  |  Result (700)  |  Rule (307)  |  Same (166)  |  Seek (218)  |  Seem (150)  |  Self (268)  |  Servant (40)  |  Serve (64)  |  Social (261)  |  Spring (140)  |  Stir (23)  |  Strong (182)  |  Symbolic (16)  |  Sympathy (35)  |  Tell (344)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thought (995)  |  Time (1911)  |  True (239)  |  Try (296)  |  Way (1214)  |  Word (650)

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)

Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science. If what is seen is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, we are engaged in science. If it is communicated through forms whose connections are not accessible to the conscious mind but are recognized intuitively as meaningful, then we are engaged in art.
— Albert Einstein
'What Artistic and Scientific Experience Have in Common', Menschen (27 Jan 1921). In Albert Einstein, Helen Dukas, Banesh Hoffmann, Albert Einstein, The Human Side (1981), 37-38. The article was published in a German magazine on modern art, upon a request from the editor, Walter Hasenclever, for a few paragraphs on the idea that there was a close connection between the artistic developments and the scientific results belonging to a given epoch. (The magazine name, and editor's name are given by Ze'ev Rosenkranz, The Einstein Scrapbook (2002), 27.
Science quotes on:  |  Accessible (27)  |  Admire (19)  |  Art (680)  |  Ask (420)  |  Asking (74)  |  Being (1276)  |  Cease (81)  |  Communicate (39)  |  Connection (171)  |  Conscious (46)  |  Engage (41)  |  Enter (145)  |  Experience (494)  |  Face (214)  |  Form (976)  |  Free (239)  |  Hope (321)  |  Language (308)  |  Logic (311)  |  Meaningful (19)  |  Mind (1377)  |  Observe (179)  |  Personal (75)  |  Portray (6)  |  Realm (87)  |  Recognize (136)  |  Scene (36)  |  See (1094)  |  Through (846)  |  Wish (216)  |  World (1850)

Whoever has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in [science], is moved by profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence.
— Albert Einstein
…...
Science quotes on:  |  Advance (298)  |  Existence (481)  |  Experience (494)  |  Intense (22)  |  Manifest (21)  |  Move (223)  |  Profound (105)  |  Rationality (25)  |  Reverence (29)  |  Successful (134)  |  Undergo (18)  |  Whoever (42)


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.