May

Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honor it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.

I do not much believe in education. Each person ought to be his or her own model, however frightful that may be.

I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.

Imagination without knowledge may create beautiful things, knowledge without imagination can create only perfect ones.

It followed from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing - a somewhat unfamiliar conception for the average mind. Furthermore, the equation E = mc², in which energy is put equal to mass, multiplied by the square of the velocity of light, showed that very small amounts of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy and vice versa.

It may be possible to fight intolerance, stupidity, and fanaticism seperately, but when they come together there is no hope.

Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive, in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.

The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.

The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.

The stakes are immense, the task colossal, the time is short. But we may hope - we must hope - that man’s own creation, man’s own genius, will not destroy him.

The ways of creation are wrapt in mystery. We may only marvel, and bow our head.

Today we must abandon competition and secure cooperation. This must be the central fact in all our considerations of international affairs; otherwise we face certain disaster. Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars…The stakes are immense, the task colossal the time is short. But we may hope- we must hope- that man’s own creation, man’s own genius, will not destroy him.

Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative.

You cannot love a car the way you love a horse. The horse brings out human feelings the way machines cannot do. Things like machines may develop or neglect certain things in people … Machines make our life impersonal and stultify certain elements in us and create an impersonal environment.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. The very prevention of war requires more faith, courage and resolution than are needed to prepare for war. We must all do our share, that we may be equal to the task of peace.