Albert Einstein Quotes on Truth
Albert Einstein's remarks on truth, gathered here, reflect both his scientific work and his wider moral outlook. He regarded the very intelligibility of nature as the deepest of mysteries, observing that the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible, and he treated the pursuit of truth and beauty as a lifelong vocation that keeps one young in spirit. Einstein was wary of dogmatism in every form: blind obedience to authority, he wrote, is the greatest enemy of truth, and anyone who sets himself up as a final judge of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. Several of his most quoted lines on science and religion appear here marked as attributed, since their exact wording is debated. Together the passages show a thinker who valued humility and independence in the search for truth.
Quotes
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Attributed to Albert Einstein:
“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
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“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
One may say "the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility. -
Attributed to Albert Einstein:
“God does not play dice with the universe.”
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“Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit. -
“Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods .”
Essay to Leo Baeck(1953) | Ideas and Opinions -
“Be a loner. That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Have holy curiosity. Make your life worth living.”
Einstein and the Poet(1983) | p. 142 -
“Study and in general the pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”
Albert Einstein: The Human Side(1979) | Letter to Adrianna Enriques (October 1921), p. 83 -
“Geh Recht viel spazieren, dass Du Recht gesund wirst und lies nicht gar zu viel sondern spar Dir noch was auf bis Du gross bist.”
1910s | Make a lot of walks to get healthy and don't read that much but save yourself some until you're grown up. Letter to his son Eduard Einstein (June 1918) -
“I lie on the beach like a crocodile and let myself be roasted by the sun. I never see a newspaper and don't give a damn for what is called the world.”
1910s | Letter to Max Born, 1918, from The Born-Einstein Letters: Friendship, Politics and Physics in Uncertain Times, Macmillan (2005 edition), pg 7.