"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."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

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

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

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

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

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

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

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)

?

? 一个物体的质量就是其所含能量的度量单位。 o

o

? 原文:The mass of a body is a measure of its energy content. 我用比相对论还多的脑力在量子论上。 原文:On quantum theory I use up more brain grease than on relativity. 物理学家们说我是数学家，数学家们又把我归为物理工作者。我是一个完全孤立的人，虽然所有人都认识我，却没有

多少人真正了解我。

o 原文:The physicists say that I am a mathematician, and the mathematicians say that I am a

physicist. I am a completely isolated man and though everybody knows me, there are very few people who really know me.

? 那我只能对亲爱的主表示遗憾。相对论是正确的。

o 原文:Then I would have felt sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct. - When asked by

a student what he would have done if Sir Arthur Eddington's famous 1919 gravitational

lensing experiment, which confirmed relativity, had instead disproved it.

? 任何一个有智力的笨蛋都可以把事情搞得更大，更复杂，也更激烈。往相反的方向前进则需要天份，以及很大的勇气。

o

?

? 原文: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. 一个人从未犯错的人是因为他不曾尝试新鲜事物。 o

o

?

?

? 原文:Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. 当我们的知识之圆扩大之时，我们所面临的未知的圆周也一样。 原文:As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it. 在上帝面前我们都一样聪明——也都一样愚蠢。 o o

o

?

? 原文:Before God we are all equally wise— and equally foolish. 常识就是人到十八岁为止所累积的各种偏见。 原文:Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen. 不要担心你在数学上遇到的困难；我敢保证我遇到的困难比你还大得多。 原文:Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater. 教育就是当一个人把在学校所学全部忘光之后剩下的东西。 o

o

?

?

? 原文:Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. 方程式对我更重要，因为政治只看眼前，而方程式是永恒的。 原文:Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity. 上帝不为我们那些数学难题而费心。祂信手拈来，将万物合一。 o o

o

? 原文:God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically. 万有引力可无法对坠入爱河的人负责。 原文:Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. 我不知道第三次世界大战会用哪些武器，但第四次世界大战中人们肯定用的是木棍和石块。 原文:I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. 我并不假装理解宇宙——它比我大多了。

o

?

?

?

?

? o o o o

o

? 原文:I don't pretend to understand the universe— it's much bigger than I am. 我喜欢旅行，但不喜欢到达目的地。 原文:I love to travel, but hate to arrive. 我从不去想未来。因为它来得已经够快的了。 原文:I never think of the future. It comes soon enough. 我认为只有大胆的臆测，而不是事实的积累，才能引领我们往前迈进。 原文:I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts. 我想知道上帝的构思；其他的都只是细节。 原文:I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details. 如果A代表一个人的成功，那么A等于x加y加z。勤奋工作是x；y是玩耍，而z是把嘴闭上。 原文:If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. 如果我再次成为一个展望人生的年轻人，我不会选择成为一个科学家、学者或是教师。我宁可去做一个水管工或是小

贩，盼望著在当前的环境里，可以找到些许独立自主的空间。

o 原文:If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not

try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

? 如果我的相对论被证明是正确的，德国人就会说我是德国人，法国佬会说我是一个世界公民。如果我的相对论被否定

了，法国佬就会骂我德国鬼子而德国人就会把我归为犹太人。

o 原文:If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and

France will say I am a man of the world. If it's proven wrong, France will say I am a German and Germany will say I am a Jew.

?

? 如果我们知道我们在做什么，那么这就不叫科学研究了；不是吗？ o

o

?

?

?

? 原文:If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? 创新不是由逻辑思维带来的，尽管最后的产物有赖于一个符合逻辑的结构。 原文:Innovation is not the product of logical thought, even though the final product is tied to a logical structure. 精神错乱：一遍又一遍地重复作同一件事而期待会有不同的结果。 o o o

o

?

?

? 原文:Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 有一个现象的明显程度已经让我毛骨悚然，这便是我们的人性已经远远落后我们的科学技术了。 原文:It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. 要打破人的偏见比崩解一个原子还难。 原文:It is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom. 法律本身并不能保证言论自由；要做到这一点必需要所有的人都有着包容的心。 原文:Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population. 人生就像骑单车。想保持平衡就得往前走。 o o

o 原文:Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. 只有利他的生活才是值得过的生活。 原文:Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. 武力不能维持和平。只有互相理解才可以。 原文:Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

? 把你的手放在滚热的炉子上一分钟，感觉起来像一小时。坐在一个漂亮姑娘身边整整一小时，感觉起来像一分钟。这

就是相对论。

o

?

?

? 原文:Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity. 所谓现实只不过是一个错觉，虽然这个错觉非常持久。 o o

o

?

?

?

? 原文:Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. 科学是个美妙的东西——如果无须靠它维生的话。 原文:Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. 我们的主很狡猾，好在他不怀歹意。 原文:Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not. (Raffiniert ist der Herrgott, aber boshaft ist Er nicht.) 天才和愚蠢之间的区别就是天才有它的限制。 o o o

o

? 原文:The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. 世界上最让我难以理解的就是所得税。 原文:The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax. 这个世界最不可理解的就是它竟然是可以理解的。 原文:The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible. 真正有价值的是直觉。在探索的道路上智力无甚用处。 原文:The only real valuable thing is intuition. The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. 我们不能用制造问题时的同一水平思维来解决问题。

o

? 原文:The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. 原子能的释放并没有创造新的问题。它仅仅是把解决一个现有问题的工作变得更为急迫。

o

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

? 原文:The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. 创新的秘密在于知道如何把你的智谋藏而不露。 o o o o o o o 原文:The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. 科学的全部不过就是日常思考的提炼。 原文:The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. 真理就是在经验面前站得住脚的东西。 原文:Truth is what stands the test of experience. 不要试图去做一个成功的人，要努力成为一个有价值的人。 原文:Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. 态度上的弱点会变成性格上的弱点。 原文:Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. 真正使我感兴趣的是上帝创造世界的时候有没有别的方案可选。 原文:What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world. 如果有来世，我要去做一个商人。 原文:If I had to live my life over again, I would live it as a trader of goods. 如果我给你一个芬尼，你的财富增长而我的财富缩减，幅度都是一个芬尼。但如果我给你一点想法，尽管你有了新的

想法，我却并没损失什么。

o 原文:If I give you a pfennig, you will be one pfennig richer and I'll be one pfennig poorer. But

if I give you an idea, you will have a new idea, but I shall still have it, too.

?

?

? 并不是我很聪明，而只是我和问题相处得比较久一点。 o o

o 原文:It's not that I'm so smart, it's ju

st that I stay with problems longer. 宇宙中威力最强大的就是复利。 原文:The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. 宇宙中唯有两件事物是无限的：那就是宇宙的大小与人的愚蠢。而宇宙的大小我却不能肯定。（4月2日名言） 原文

:Zwei Dinge sind unendlich: Das Universum und die menschliche Dummheit. Aber beim

Universum bin ich mir nicht ganz sicher.

这个理论是说了很多，但它并没有引领我们更接近上帝的秘密。 我，无论如何，深信上帝不掷骰子。

? 量子力学的确让人印象深刻。但是我的内心却有一个声音告诉我，它还不是正确的理论。这个理论是说了很多，但它

并没有引领我们更接近上帝的秘密。我，无论如何，深信上帝不掷骰子。

图一

英语原文：I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind. ? 我不是无神论者，也称不上是汎神论者。我们就像是个进入一座大型图书馆的小孩。图书馆里藏满了许多由不同语言

写成的书籍。这个小孩知道，这些书一定是由某(些)人所写，只是不知道他(们)是如何写成的。这个小孩隐约地感觉到这些书的排列，彷佛依据某种神秘的规则，不过不知道是什么规则。对我来说，这似乎就是就连是最聪明的人对于上帝的看法。 ? 我们看到一个不可思议地排列著的宇宙，遵行著某些特定的规律。对于这些定律，我们只有模糊的了解。以我们有限

的智力，无法理解那推动著星宿们运行的神秘力量。我为史宾诺莎的汎神论著迷，但更欣赏他对于现代思想的贡献。因为他是第一位把灵魂和身体看作一体的哲学家，而不是把它们当成是两个分开的东西。

英语原文：Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. ?

? 为了惩罚我蔑视权威，命运也将我变成了一个权威。 我每天提醒自己一百遍，我的生活，不管内在或是外在，都是以他人(包括活著的和逝去的)努力的成果为基础。所以

我必须尽力奉献自己，希望能以同等的贡献，来回报长久以来(现在仍是)我从他人身上所获得的。

英语原文：A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give

in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

英语原文：So many people today — and even professional scientists — seem to me like someone who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most

scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is — in my opinion — the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.