Seeking Albert Einstein quotes?
Einstein quotes abound online.
The only problem is – Einstein never said most of them!
Here you’ll find Albert Einstein quotes on
- Imagination
- Creativity
- Education
- Success
- and more…
Plus completely fake Einstein quotes!
And insanity doing the same thing over and over again?
Fake too.
But you’ll find plenty of genuine Einstein quotes, plus a list of fake ones you can mis-attribute to him if you like.
The choice is yours!
Albert Einstein quotes on imagination
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.
I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.
Reality is merely an illusion albeit a very persistent one.
Graphics courtesy MyMathDone
Albert Einstein quotes on creativity
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. (possibly mis-attributed to Einstein and spoken by C.E.M. Joad)
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
Albert Einstein quotes on curiosity
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
People like you and me never grow old. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.
This delicate little plant [curiosity], aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Albert Einstein quotes on education
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
Information is not knowledge.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein quotes on success
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
Intellectuals solve problems. Geniuses prevent them.
More famous Albert Einstein quotes
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the former.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein quotes infographic
Thanks to MyMathDone for the brilliant infographic at the end of this article – and for introducing me to the awesome anagram Albert Einstein = Ten Elite Brains.
How apt!
The MyMathDone blog asserts that the 6 quotes on the infographic are verified Einstein quotes. Plus, they extrapolated life lessons from Einstein’s words.
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
Can you imagine Einstein having no special talent? Life Lesson: Follow your curiosity.
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Life Lesson: Imagination is powerful. We can all use this free resource to our advantage!
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Life Lesson: Make mistakes. If you haven’t made a mistake lately, you’re playing it too safe!
I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
Life Lesson: Live in the moment. Make every moment count!
Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.
Life Lesson: Knowledge comes from experience. Don’t just learn and think about things – try them!
Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Life Lesson: Even brilliant minds stand on the shoulders of those who went before.
Albert Einstein’s Life
Perhaps Einstein’s life provides clues to all the fake quotes.
He lived a somewhat eccentric life. He never learned how to drive a car, preferring to either ride a bicycle or to walk.
He was a heavy smoker, a life member of the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club, and is said to have picked up cigarette butts off the street to get tobacco for his pipe.
He was married twice, the second time to his own first cousin.
He was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany, and passed away on April 18, 1955, in Princeton, NJ.
Born on March 14, Pi Day! 3.14…
Certainly one lesson we should learn from this brilliant man is that you can’t judge by appearances.
Imagine seeing a disheveled man with wild gray hair picking up cigarette butts! I doubt you’d guess that he’d become one of the most acclaimed minds of modern times.
He was also known for his sense of humor. Perhaps that’s why so many satirical quotes are attributed to him.
Completely Fake Einstein Quotes
Interestingly, I was able to find more definitive information on mis-attributed Einstein quotes than on ones he actually said!
While I can’t guarantee all of the quotes above were actually spoken or written by him, the ones below have been debunked.
When I was young I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. ~Benjamin Brewster
International law exists only in textbooks on international law.
When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.
Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.
The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.
Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.
I refuse to believe that God plays dice with the universe.
Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Two things inspire me to awe: the starry heavens and the moral universe within.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Narcotics Anonymous
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live. ~Maurice Maeterlinck
Everything is energy and that’s 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. ~Darryl Anka
Darn. I really liked some of those!
Conclusion
Below you’ll find that fun infographic of Albert Einstein quotes with the simple, yet profound, life lessons drawn from them.
Yes, Einstein said (and did!) a lot of amazing things.
But a lot of quotes have been attributed to him that he never actually said.
They’re all clever and worth sharing, though!
Perhaps you’d like to learn how to make picture quotes from his words.
If you like these famous Albert Einstein quotes – Pin the infographic below to Pinterest!
anonymous says
“I refuse to believe that God plays dice with the universe.” Einstein actually said something very close to this about quantum mechanics.
Louise Myers says
Interesting!