Albert Einstein was one of the most brilliant minds of all time.
Not just when it came to science and physics though as he had a lot of concise wisdom to share about life, happiness and success too.
So in today’s post I’d like to share 101 of the most inspirational, funny and motivational Albert Einstein quotes.
I hope you’ll find something here that’ll make you think and help you to move forward towards your goals and dreams.
Inspirational Albert Einstein Quotes
“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.”
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“We cannot get to where we dream of being tomorrow unless we change our thinking today.”
“I’d rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.”
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”
“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.”
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
“I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be.”
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
“The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been truth, goodness, and beauty.”
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.”
“You never fail until you stop trying.”
“What is right is not always popular, and what is popular is not always right.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
“Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking, observing, there we enter the realm of art and science.”
Albert Einstein Quotes About Life
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”
“Live with purpose. Don’t let people or things around you get you down.”
“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”
“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”
“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”
“I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”
“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
“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 received and am still receiving.”
“I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.”
“Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”
“The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.”
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
“I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.”
“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”
“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
“Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.”
“Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.”
Funny Albert Einstein Quotes
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
“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.”
“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
“The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.”
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”
“You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.”
“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
“Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.”
“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That’s why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.”
“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”
“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk?”
Albert Einstein Quotes on Success
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.”
“Success comes from curiosity, concentration, perseverance and self-criticism.”
“Failure is success in progress.”
“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
“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.”
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.”
“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.”
“Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives.”
“The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community.”
“The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.”
“The ordinary objects of human endeavour – property, outward success, luxury – have always seemed to me contemptible.”
“I most seriously believe that one does people the best service by giving them some elevating work to do and thus indirectly elevating them.”
“Failure and deprivation are the best educators and purifiers.”
“The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest.”
“Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.”
“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”
Albert Einstein Quotes on Intelligence, Knowledge and Imagination
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
“Don’t listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions.”
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction.”
“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
“Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few do it.”
“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Want more timeless wisdom and inspiration? Then have a look at the best Dolly Parton quotes, these Marcus Aurelius quotes and also this one with many Maya Angelou quotes.
Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog.