Quotes to inspire and reflect

When one looks at humankind today, one notices with regret that quantity does not make up for quality. If quantity could only substitute for quality, we would be in better circumstances now than was Ancient Greece.

It is better for people to be like the beasts… They should be more intuitive; they should not be too conscious of what they are doing while they are doing it.

Sometimes one pays most for things one gets for nothing.

Race is a fraud. All modern people are a conglomeration of so many ethnic mixtures that no pure race remains.

Homosexuality should not be punishable except to protect children.

Great men are simply men and are not to be considered from the point of view of nationality, nor should the environment in which they were brought up be taken into account.

Children don’t heed the life experiences of their parents, and nations ignore history. Bad lessons always have to be learned anew.

One should keep in mind that on average the moral qualities of people do not differ much from country to country.

Life is a great tapestry. The individual is only an insignificant thread in an immense and miraculous pattern.

I believe that all creatures who can have young ones together are very much the same.

The discovery of a nuclear chain reaction need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than the discovery of matches.

The unified field theory has been put into retirement. It is so difficult to employ mathematically that I have not been able to verify it somehow, in spite of all my efforts. This state of affairs will no doubt last many more years, mostly because physicists have little understanding of logical-philosophical arguments.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people on Earth would be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start out again, and civilization would be restored.

I also believe that capitalism or, we should say, the system of free enterprise will prove unable to check unemployment, which will become increasingly chronic because of technological progress, and unable to maintain a healthy balance between production and the purchasing power of the people.

Creation of a United States of Europe is an economic and political necessity. Whether it would contribute to the stabilization of international peace is hardly predictable. I believe yes.

The proposed militarization of the nation not only immediately threatens us with war, it will also slowly but surely undermine the democratic spirit and the dignity of the individual in our land.

As long as nations demand unrestricted sovereignty we shall undoubtedly be faced with still bigger wars, fought with bigger and technologically more advanced weapons.

Hitler is living—or shall I say sitting—on the empty stomach of Germany. As soon as economic conditions improve, Hitler will sink into oblivion.

Japan is now like a great kettle without a safety valve. It does not have enough land to enable its population to exist and develop. The situation must somehow be remedied if we are to avoid a terrible conflict.

We will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to think too much about the future.

Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other… Arms must be entrusted only to an international authority.

I am not saying the U.S. should not manufacture and stockpile the bomb, for I believe that it must do so; it must be able to deter another nation from making an atomic attack.

May the conscience and the common sense of the people be awakened, so that we may reach a new stage in the life of nations, where people will look back on war as an incomprehensible aberration of their forefathers!

My participation in the production of the atomic bomb consisted of one single act: I signed a letter to President Roosevelt in which I emphasized the necessity of conducting large-scale experimentation with regard to the feasibility of producing an atom bomb… I felt impelled to take the step because it seemed probable that the Germans might be working on the same problem with every prospect of success. I had no alternative to act as I did, although I have always been a convinced pacifist.

Real progress has never been possible without sacrifices… As long as nations systematically continue to prepare for war, fear, distrust and selfish ambitions will lead to war again.

The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack.

I am a dedicated but not an absolute pacifist; this means that I am opposed to the use of force under any circumstances except when confronted by an enemy who pursues the destruction of life as an end in itself .

I believe that the killing of human beings in a war is no better than common murder.

The crime of the Germans is truly the most abominable ever to be recorded in the history of the so-called civilized nations. The conduct of the German intellectuals—seen as a group—was no better than that of the mob.

The bombing of civilian centers was initiated by the Germans and adopted by the Japanese. To it, the Allies responded in kind—as it turned out, with greater effectiveness—and they were morally justified in doing so.

People are living now just as they were before… and it is clear that they have learned nothing from the horrors they have had to deal with. The little intrigues with which they had complicated their lives before are again taking up most of their thoughts. What a strange species we are.

Organized power can be opposed only by organized power. Much as I regret this, there is no other way.

It is unworthy of a great nation to stand idly by while small countries of great culture are being destroyed with a cynical contempt for justice.

I cannot understand the passive response of the whole civilized world to this modern barbarism. Doesn’t the world see that Hitler is aiming for war?

I am the same ardent pacifist I was before. But I believe that the tool of refusing military service can be advocated again in Europe only when the military threat from aggressive dictatorships toward democratic countries has ceased to exist.

In two weeks the sheep-like masses can be worked up by the newspapers into such a state of excited fury that the men are prepared to put on uniform and kill and be killed, for the sake of the worthless aims of a few interested parties. Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering today.

War is not a parlor game in which the players obediently stick to the rules. Where life and death are at stake, rules and obligations go by the board. Only the absolute repudiation of all war can be of any use here.

My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of people is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.

No person has the right to call himself a Christian or Jew so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it.

I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.

He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.

War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would rather be hacked in pieces that take part in such an abominable business.

I know people in Germany whose private lives are guided by virtually unbounded altruism, but who were awaiting the declaration of unlimited submarine warfare with the greatest impatience… These people must be shown that it is necessary to have consideration for non-Germans as worthy equals, that it is essential to earn the trust of foreign countries, in order to be able to exist, that the goals that one sets for oneself cannot be achieved through force and treachery.

The psychological roots of war are, in my opinion, biologically rooted in the aggressive nature of the male creature… Some animals—the bull and the rooster—surpass us in this regard.

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.

Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.