Einstein:
Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.
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.
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
Imagination is more important than knowledge...
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.
Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.
Truth is what stands the test of experience.
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
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Nietszche:
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
The overman...Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life's terrors, he affirms life without resentment.
To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.
To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.
What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do…?
You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
Morality is herd instinct in the individual.
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments.
A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
It is nobler to declare oneself wrong than to insist on being right - especially when one is right.
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Confucius:
Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
The cautious seldom err.
The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.
The man who in view of gain thinks of righteousness; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life; and who does not forget an old agreement however far back it extends - such a man may be reckoned a complete man.
The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
The superior man is satisfied and composed; the mean man is always full of distress.
There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth...lust. When he is strong...quarrelsomeness. When he is old...covetousness.
Things that are done, it is needless to speak about...things that are past, it is needless to blame.
To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.
With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow - I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.
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Gandhi:
Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.
As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi, (attributed)
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.
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