15 Relatively Brilliant Albert Einstein Quotes

In addition to being one of the world's greatest thinkers, Albert Einstein was also quite the philosopher. Here are 15 of his most relatively brilliant quotes.

1. ON LACKING TALENT

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

— In a letter to Carl Seelig, 1952; Einstein Archives 39-013

2. ON HIS LIFE'S PARADOX

"To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself."

— Aphorism for a friend, 1930; Einstein Archives 36-598 

3. ON SEGREGATION

"There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it."

— From a lecture at Lincoln University, 1946 

4. ON WAR

"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."

— In a letter to Congressman Robert Hale, 1946; later published in Einstein on Peace, 1988 

5. WHEN ASKED IF HE CONSIDERS HIMSELF A GERMAN OR A JEW

"I look upon myself as a man. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."

— To The Saturday Evening Post, October 1929 

6. ON BEING FAMOUS

"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."

— From The World As I See It, 1949 

7. ON SURVIVAL

"I am doing just fine, considering that I have triumphantly survived Nazism and two wives."

— In a letter to Jakob Ehrat, 1952; Einstein Archives 59-554 

8. ON EDUCATION

"School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system there, and especially sports. Because of this, I wasn't worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave. This was a Catholic School in Munich. I felt that my thirst for knowledge was being strangled by my teachers; grades were their only measurement. How can a teacher understand youth with such a system?"

— In a conversation with William Hermanns, later published in Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man, 1983

9. ON OTHER CAREER PATHS

"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music ... I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin."

— To The Saturday Evening Post, October 1929

10. ON THE MEANING OF LIFE

"What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life."

— From The World As I See It, 1949

11. ON PRAISE

"The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working."

— Via an article in Smithsonian magazine, 1979 

12. ON READING

"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, just as the man who spends too much time in the theater is tempted to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life."

— To The Saturday Evening Post, October 1929

13. ON RELIGION

"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. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. 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 in the ranks of devoutly religious men."

— From Living Philosophies, 1931

14. ON GROOMING

“If I were to start taking care of my grooming, I would no longer be my own self.”

— From a letter to Elsa Löwenthal, 1913 

15. ON BEING A LONER

“I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart. In the face of all this, I have never lost a sense of distance and the need for solitude.”

— From The World As I See It, 1949