Swiss author Quotes

“As long as there will be a man, there will be wars.”

“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

“Marriage is but slavery made to appear civilized.”

“The only source of knowledge is experience.”

“A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability. Therefore the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made upon me. It is the only physical theory of universal content concerning which I am convinced that within the framework of the applicability of its basic concepts, it will never be overthrown.”

“Culture in its higher forms is a delicate plant which depends on a complicated set of conditions and is wont to flourish only in a few places at any given time.”

“Anyone can be a genius, if they pick just one specific subject and study it diligently just 15 minutes each day.”

“Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.”

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”

“The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell's equations of the electromagnetic field.”

“In matters of trust and justice there can be no distinction between big problems and small, for the general principles which determine the conduct of men are indivisible. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.”

“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.”

“The one who walks alone, is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been.”

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

“The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent and creative imagination. Even when the external and scientific requirements for the birth of an idea have long been there, it generally needs an external stimulus to make it actually happen; man has, so to speak, to stumble right up against the thing before the idea comes.”

“For scientific endeavor is a natural whole the parts of which mutually support one another in a way which, to be sure, no one can anticipate.”

“The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wrack and ruin without fail. It is a grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.”

“The basic laws of the universe are simple, but because our senses are limited, we can’t grasp them. There is a pattern in creation.”

“I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however.”

“I do not believe that a man should be restrained in his daily actions by being afraid of punishment after death or that he should do things only because in this way he will be rewarded after he dies. This does not make sense. The proper guidance during the life of a man should be the weight that he puts upon ethics and the amount of consideration that he has for others.”

“A man who is convinced of the truth of his religion is indeed never tolerant. At the least, he is to feel pity for the adherent of another religion but usually it does not stop there. The faithful adherent of a religion will try first of all to convince those that believe in another religion and usually he goes on to hatred if he is not successful. However, hatred then leads to persecution when the might of the majority is behind it.”

“No problem is ever solved in the same consciousness thas was used to create it.”