Reference
Quotes — What He Really Said
Einstein is the most misquoted figure in modern history. The internet has hung countless feel-good slogans around his neck. Below are quotations with a real source — followed by some famous lines he almost certainly never said.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert EinsteinInterview with G. S. Viereck, The Saturday Evening Post, 1929
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein“What I Believe”, Forum and Century, October 1930 (English wording from a 1935 translation)
The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility. Albert Einstein“Physics and Reality”, 1936
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. Albert Einstein“Science, Philosophy and Religion”, 1941
I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice. Albert Einsteinletter to Max Born, 4 December 1926 (translated from the German; the catchphrase “God does not play dice” is a later shortening)
Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. Albert EinsteinLIFE magazine, 1955
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Albert Einsteininterview, 1955
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein“Cosmic Religion”, 1931
- Quotations cross-checked against Wikipedia, Wikiquote, and Alice Calaprice (ed.), The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (Princeton, 2010).
- Imagination: G. S. Viereck, “What Life Means to Einstein”, The Saturday Evening Post, 26 Oct 1929, p. 117 (scan).
- Mystery and comprehensibility: Wikiquote: Albert Einstein (“What I Believe”, Forum and Century, October 1930; English wording after Patrick/Chapman, 1935; “Physics and Reality”, March 1936).
- Peace: “Cosmic Religion” (1931), section “Notes on Pacifism” (full text); Wikiquote: Albert Einstein and politics assigns it to a speech to the New History Society (14 December 1930); the book prints the sentence on p. 33, without a date.
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Things Einstein (probably) never said
A good rule: if a quote sounds like a fortune cookie and has no date or document attached, be suspicious. Here are six of the worst offenders.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Why it's doubtful: First appears in print decades after his death, in addiction-recovery groups (1981) and a 1983 novel — never in Einstein's own writings.
“Everybody 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.”
Why it's doubtful: No source before 2004; only the underlying allegory (animals judged by skills they lack) is older than Einstein, and this saying was never attributed to him in his lifetime.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
Why it's doubtful: Untraceable to any Einstein text. The earliest known version is in a 1940s book by the psychotherapist Fritz Perls, who credited it to “a great astronomer”; only in 1969 did Perls claim Einstein had said it to him.
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.”
Why it's doubtful: No evidence Einstein ever said it. The earliest known version is an unattributed bank advertisement from 1925; it was first credited to Einstein in 1988, more than thirty years after his death.
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
Why it's doubtful: First linked to Einstein in a 1995 newspaper profile, forty years after his death. Proverbs of this kind go back to the 19th century; a close relative was in print, with no name attached, in 1901.
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Why it's doubtful: No source before the 1990s, when it began circulating online. Alice Calaprice's “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” lists it under “Probably not by Einstein”.
- Alice Calaprice, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010); Quote Investigator; Wikiquote: Albert Einstein (misattributed section).
- Quote Investigator: “Two things are infinite” (Perls, 1940s and 1969); Quote Investigator: “The eighth wonder of the world” (1925, 1988); Quote Investigator: “never made a mistake” (1901, 1995); Wikiquote, talk page: “Logic will get you from A to B” (Calaprice, p. 481).
Want to test yourself? In the quiz “Einstein or not Einstein?” on the Learn page, genuine and misattributed lines are mixed together – each with the answer and a source.