My Favorite Einstein Quotes

I had a friend once who told me that it was impossible for a person to be both intelligent and wise at the same time.  While I vehemently disagreed with him, he was sure that wise men could not be super intelligent and super intelligent men could not be wise.  But while it may not be common to find incredibly wise geniuses, I can at least hold faith that Einstein could be my example.

Albert Einstein was what many would call a great man.  Most well known for his physics contributions, he is the creator of both general and specific relativity, shedding light in a whole new way to physicists about the way things move with relation to each other. He is widely accepted as a genius in his own right.  However, not everyone is as familiar with the wisdom he possessed as well.  He had this incredible insight into humanity and saw things that many people still don't see.

Below I have included 10 of my all time favorite Einstein quotes.  Some funny, some profound, but all with a great message:

1. "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.  The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly."

2. "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

3. "A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be."

4. "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."

5. "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding."

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

7. "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.  It takes a tough of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."

8. "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.  Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

9. "The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."

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