Wisdom from Albert Einstein

I have often been inspired by words from Albert Einstein who completely changed our worldview over 100 years age. Here are some profound insights and aphorisms that are delicious food for thought:

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.

“A human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of 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.”

“I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

“Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”

“Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”

“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”

“Time and space are not conditions in which we live, but modes by which we think. Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, determined by the external world.”

“Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says. The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

“When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected. The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.”

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.”

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is through nothing is a miracle. The other is through everything is a miracle.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”

“You never fail until you stop trying.”

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

“Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what people does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the people does know or is capable of knowing.”

“Time and space are not conditions of existence, time and space is a model for thinking.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. Important thing is not to stop questioning.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited and imagination encircles the world”.

Walter Holder

Walter Holder

Walter D. Holder Jr., M.D., FACS is a semi-retired academic surgical oncologist with decades of patient care experience, medical and surgical teaching, and clinical and basic science research. He loves all things science and has been committed to scientific truth and integrity throughout his life.