On Intelligence:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

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

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler "

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

"He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice."

"Two things are infinte: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning."

"Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe."

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

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

"I made one great mistake in my life when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made but there was some justification the danger that the Germans would make them."

"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."

On math and relativity:

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."

"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."

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax."

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once "

"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity."

"The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives."

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty "

"The only rational way of educating is to be an example-- if one can't help it, a warning example."

"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy. "

If you have anything to add, or if you have corrections, comments, or recommendations for future FotM's (or maybe you'd like to be co-author of a FotM?), please write to me at volk.thom@uwlax.edu

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Return to Tom Volk's Fungus of the month pages for March 2004, in honor of Einstein's 125th birthday