A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe,"
a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts
and feelings as something separated from the rest a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to
achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is
in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
God is subtle, but he is not malicious.
Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual
who can labor in freedom.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer
life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that
I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have
received.
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that
can be counted counts.
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is
a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile....
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods....
People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else,
do not grow old no matter how long we live...[We] never cease to stand
like curious children before the great mystery into which we were
born. (letter to Otto Juliusburger... )
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man
of value....
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift....
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is
the source of all true art and all 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....
Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love....
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All
these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting
it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual
towards freedom....
A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's
no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.
That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that
the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly
persistent illusion.
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