Quotes to inspire and reflect

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands the whole person. Toscanini demonstrates this in every manifestation of his life.

At first glance, his greatest contribution, the League of Nations, appears to have failed. Still, despite the fact that the League was crippled by his contemporaries and rejected by his own country, I have no doubt that Wilson’s work will one day emerge in more effective form.

Outside Russia, Lenin and Engels are of course not valued as scientific thinkers and no one would be interested in refuting them as such. The same might also be the case in Russia, except there one doesn’t dare say so.

Hitler appeared, a man with limited intellectual abilities and unfit for any useful work, bursting with envy and bitterness against all whom circumstance and nature had favored over him… He picked up this human flotsam on the streets and in the taverns and organized them around himself. This is the way he launched his political career.

I respect Lenin as a man who gave all his energy, at a total sacrifice of his personal life, to dedicating himself to the realization of socialist justice. I don’t consider his methods appropriate. But one thing is certain: Men such as he are the guardians and renewers of mankind’s conscience.

I understand Jung’s vague, imprecise notions, but I consider them worthless—a lot of talk without any clear direction. If there has to be a psychiatrist, I should prefer Freud. I do not believe in him, but I love very much his concise style and his original, although rather extravagant, mind.

You, who have gotten under the skin of so many people and, indeed, of humanity, have had no occasion to slip under mine.

Shaw is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest figures. I once said of him that his plays remind me of Mozart. There is not one superfluous word in Shaw’s prose, just as there is not one superfluous note in Mozart’s" music.

When the Nazis came into power, Einstein I think was faced with a dilemma. Should he continue with his pacifism, or should he do what he could to resist the Nazis in their effort to get control of the whole world?

I do not believe Mme. Curie is power-hungry or hungry for whatever. She is an unpretentious, honest person with more than her share of responsibilities and burdens. She has a sparkling intelligence, but despite her passionate nature she is not attractive enough to present a danger to anyone.

Ptolemy made a universe, which lasted 1400 years. Newton also made a universe, which

Although he knew who he was; although he was aware of his celebrity, he always took it with humor and always laughed at it and at himself.

He said he would be willing to subscribe to the idea to resist force with force. Because he said otherwise it's like trying to cure a sick tribe of people. You try to cure them, in a way it is too slow. By the time you cure them with pacifism, they're all dead. That's not very efficient.

At the very end, when they said to him, we could try to operate on you as a last resort. He didn't want to be operated on. He said ‘I want to go when I am ready, and I will do it in an elegant way.’

If Einstein has stopped doing physics in the year 1925 and gone fishing, he would be just as beloved, just as great, and it would not have made a damn bit of difference.

He never forgave the Germans for what they had done. Never. On the other hand he was deeply rooted in the German culture. We always spoke German together, because that was the best way I could follow the nuance of his personality. German was the language in which he was free to modulate and to express himself.

Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein. “

He loved Jewish jokes. I have told him many, and the thing I wish most is that I would have a record in which I could capture Einstein's laughter when he heard a good Jewish joke. His laughter sounded something like the bark of a contented seal. It was a very strange sound.

He knew, as did Socrates, that we know nothing.

Probably the only project he ever gave up on was me. He tried to give me advice, but he

Anyone who advises Americans to keep secret information which they may have about spies and saboteurs is himself an enemy of America.

A powerful searchlight of the human mind, piercing by its rays the darkness of the unknown, has suddenly been extinguished. The world has lost its foremost genius and the Jewish people its most illustrious son in the present generation.

When something struck him as funny, his eyes twinkled merrily and he laughed with his whole being… He was ready for humor.

It is not ideal to be the wife of a genius. Your life does not belong to you. It seems to belong to everyone else. Nearly every minute of the day I give to my husband, and that means to the public.

I have finished my task here.

You are the only sort of man in whose existence I see much hope for in this deplorable world.

In one’s youth every person and every event appear to be unique. With age, one becomes much more aware that similar events recur. Later on, one is less often delighted or surprised, but also less disappointed.

I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.

I feel like an egg, of which only the shell remains; at 75 years old, one can’t expect anything else. One should prepare a person for his death.

All of one’s contemporaries and aging friends are living in a delicate balance, and one feels that one’s own consciousness is no longer as brightly lit as it once was. But then, twilight with its more subdued colors has its charms as well.

Every reminiscence is colored by today’s being what it is, and therefore by a deceptive point of view.

I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously.

I have firmly resolved to bite the dust, when my time comes, with a minimum of medical assistance, and up to then I will sin to my wicked heart’s content.

I want to be cremated so people won’t come to worship at my bones.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the

A man’s value to the community depends primarily on how far his feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the good of his fellows.

We have to do the best we are capable of. This is our sacred human responsibility.

The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow-creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.

A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.

It is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is so easy to recognize a falsehood.

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

Life is short, and the boulder against which one pushes with all one’s might moves from its spot only with long intermissions.

One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled underfoot before one’s time.

I admit that thoughts influence the body.

Autobiographies mostly arise out of narcissism or negative feelings toward others. Biographies from the pen of another person tend in their psychological traits to reflect the intellectual and spiritual nature of the writer more than that of the person portrayed.