I have lived to prove Thoreau's contention that a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

I am an absolute pacifist...It is an instinctive feeling. It is a feeling that possesses me, because the murder of men is disgusting.

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.

My intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which I began to wonder about space and time only when I had already grown up.

Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.

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.

The beauty of it is that we have to content ourselves with the recognition of the miracle, beyond which there is no legitimate way out.

Conscious man, to be sure, has at all times been keenly aware that life is an adventure, that life must, forever, be wrested from death.

When I have one week to solve a seemingly impossible problem, I spend six days defining the problem. Then, the solution becomes obvious.

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

I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow men.

If you want to make your children brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want to make them more brilliant, tell them more fairy tales.

Vegetarian food leaves a deep impression on our nature. If the whole world adopts vegetarianism, it can change the destiny of humankind.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. (said of Mahatma Gandhi)

It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.

In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it.

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.

I do not play games. There is not time for it. When I get through with work, I don't want anything that requires the working of the mind.

I am truly a "lone traveler" and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart.

Well-being and happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig.

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.

People should be more like animals . . . they should be more intuitive; they should not be too conscious of what they do while they do it.

We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence.

What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos.

Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world. All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it.

Most people stop looking when they find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I would continue looking to see if there were other needles.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

If I had only one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem, and only five minutes finding the solution.

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

It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth.

Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.

All meaningful and lasting change starts first in your imagination and then works its way out. Imagination is more important than knowledge.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

If I had my life to live over again, I would elect to be a trader of goods rather than a student of science. I think barter is a noble thing.

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

It is also a natural thing for a serious young man that he should form for himself as precise an idea as possible of the goal of his desires.

The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.

You are right in speaking of the moral foundations of science, but you cannot turn around and speak of the scientific foundations of morality.

Engineering is not only study of 45 subjects but it is moral studies of intellectual life. Make things as simple as possible..but not simpler.

Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.

The essentials of being a person of my type lies precisely in what they think and how they think, not in what they do. Your thoughts shape you.

Nothing happens until something moves. When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected.

During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.

Mere praise of peace is easy and ineffective. What is needed is acitve participation in the fight against war and everything which leads to it.

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