How to Know the Thoughts of a Genius
Learning from the “Father of Modern Physics”
Considered the “Father of Modern Physics,” and one of the foremost scientists of all time. Known by most for his theory of relativity and the equation E=MC2. His equation foreshadowed the development of the atomic bomb.
Born in Germany, he won the Nobel Prize in 1921 at the age of 43 years old. He immigrated to the United States in 1933 at 54 years of age. He is considered one of the greatest revolutionary scientists the world has ever known.
Albert Einstein became an American citizen in 1940 and died at age 76 in 1955. Einstein’s curiosity, creativity, and imagination took him beyond ordinary science into the world and humanity.
I have attempted to arrange the more notable quotes from Einstein’s life, grouped in an order that will help you get the most from this article.
Science
“Science can flourish only in an atmosphere of free speech.”
“All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”
“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
Imagination
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
Knowledge and Intelligence
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
“Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
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“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
“Information is not knowledge.”
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
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“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
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“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”
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“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
“The great moral teachers of humanity were, in a way, artistic geniuses in the art of living.”
“Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”
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“Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
“Invention is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to a logical structure.”
“I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.”
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“A question that sometimes drives me hazy — am I or are the others crazy?”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
”One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to comprehend only a little of this mystery every day.”
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
“There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
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“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry.”
“Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
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“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”
“As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.”
“Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”
“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
Life and Living
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
“Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”
“Nothing happens until something moves.”
“Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
“Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen.”
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
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“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
“Love brings much happiness, much more so than pining for someone brings pain.”
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
“You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.”
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
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“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.” “
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
“I love to travel, but I hate to arrive.” “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
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“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
“Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated.”
“I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.”
“I believe in intuitions and inspirations… I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am.”
Success and Happiness
“If A is a success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play, and Z is keeping your mouth shut.”
“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”
“Hail to the man who went through life always helping others, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien.”
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
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“I still struggle with the same problems as ten years ago. I succeed in small matters but the real goal remains unattainable, even though it sometimes seems palpably close. It is hard, yet rewarding: hard because the goal is beyond my abilities, but rewarding because it makes one oblivious to the distractions of everyday life.”
“I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
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“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
“Let us not forget that human knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life”
Humanity
A human being is part of a whole called by us “Universe.”
“Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.”
I would teach peace rather than war. I would inculcate love rather than hate.
“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”
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I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings.
“The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it
“Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.”
“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
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“Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.”
“Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.”
“Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation.”
“Valuable achievement can sprout from human society only when it is sufficiently loosened to make possible the free development of an individual’s abilities.”
“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
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“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.”
“In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“We have been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly just how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists. If this humility could be imparted to everybody, the world of human endeavors would become more appealing.”
As you can see, while many of Einstein’s words are profound, he had a quick wit with a wonderful sense of humor. I hope you found Einstein’s words impactful.
I adjure you to take this final quote to heart. Do not go through life doing the same old thing every day without the realization that nothing different will result. If you want to change the path you are on, change something, or expect to receive the same results.
Remember Einstein’s famous saying:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.
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