Albert Einstein

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

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

"I never thought others would take them more seriously than I did." -- Albert Einstein on his theories

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity." -- Albert Einstein on relativity

"God does not play dice" -- Albert Einstein on Quantum Mechanics

"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

Since "Albert Einstein - Quotes" has been deleted, I'll post these here:

• "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
• "So long as they don't get violent, I want to let everyone say what they wish, for I myself have always said exactly what pleased me."
• "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
• "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
• "Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."
• "It is best, it seems to me, to separate one's inner striving from one's trade as far as possible. It is not good when one's daily break is tied to God's special blessing."
• "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."
• "The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax."
• "It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a regime that does not maintain any military secrets."
• "We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."
• "It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure."
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning."
• "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
• "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
• "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
• "Everything should be as simple as possible--but not simpler."
• "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions."
• "Gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love."
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"
• "He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "I can assure you that no matter how complex your mathematical problems are, mine are greater."
• "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
• "If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!" -- Einstein on the book "100 Authors Against Einstein"

(See Einstein Wasn't Religious for more debate on Einstein's religiousness.)

German physicist. Born March 14,1879 in Ulm, died April, 18 in Princeton.

1909-1913 professor in Zürich and Prague, 1914-1933 Director of the "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instituts für Physik" (Emperor Wilhelm Institution for Physics, later called the Max-Plank-Gesellschaft) in Berlin and member of the "Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften" (Preussean Academy of Sciences).
Emigrated to the USA 1933 and became Professor in Princeton.

He discovered special relativity in 1905 and general relativity 1915, with which he explains gravity. The formula E=mc^2 was discovered in 1905.

Einstein got the Nobel Prize 1921.

This support for the Jewish people, himself one, probably played a hand in his recommendation that the USA build a thermonuclear device to counter the possibility that Germany already might have had one.

The Israelis, whose country is believed to be the sacred land of the Jewish people offered Albert the presidency of Israel in 1952. He turned this down due to his admitted naivete at politics and his belief that his work in physics was much more important and would last much longer than any contribution he might be able to give as a president of a country he never set foot in.