A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. Letter to Harry S. Truman.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my lifetime.

It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.

I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

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.

This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of the herd nature, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed. This plague-spot of civilisation ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business.

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world. Remark to Ernst Straus, one of his assistants.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself. Aphorism for a friend (18 September 1930).

I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.

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.