Quotes · Skopia

51 quotes

SortEditorial Year Length

Place·Bavaria✕clear

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

Henry Kissinger

1971

★ 7.0

Poem · Political literature

Who built the Thebes of the seven gates? In the books you will find the names of kings. Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock?... Where, the evening that the wall of China was finished Did the masons go?

Questions from a Worker Who Reads · 1936

★ 6.8

Submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing... Measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.

1941

★ 6.0

Every tool carries with it the spirit by which it has been created.

Werner Heisenberg

1958

★ 5.3

We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires.

Pope Benedict XVI

2005

★ 5.1

God has pity on kindergarten children. He has less pity on school children. And on grownups he has no pity at all, he leaves them alone, and sometimes they must crawl on all fours in the burning sand to reach the first-aid station covered with blood.

God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children · 1955

★ 5.0

Since the measuring device has been constructed by the observer... We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

Werner Heisenberg

1956

★ 5.0

From the earliest times, human civilization has been no more than a strange luminescence growing more intense by the hour, of which no one can say when it will begin to wane and when it will fade away. For the time being, our cities still shine through the night, and the fires still spread.

The Rings of Saturn · 1995

★ 5.0

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Albert Einstein

1901

★ 4.6

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Albert Einstein

1930

★ 4.6

Essay · Magazine

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

Albert Einstein

1930

★ 4.5

We take almost all the decisive steps in our lives as a result of slight inner adjustments of which we are barely conscious.

Austerlitz · 2001

★ 4.3

I never think of the future—it comes soon enough.

Albert Einstein

1930

★ 3.8

Academic journal · Scientific literature

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

Albert Einstein

1936

★ 3.8

Academic journal · Scientific literature

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of every day thinking.

Albert Einstein

1936

★ 3.8

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

Albert Einstein

1946

★ 3.7

A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way. But intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience.

Albert Einstein

1949

★ 3.7

Interview · Biography

The history of things that didn’t happen has never been written.

Henry Kissinger

1972

★ 3.7

Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

1931

★ 3.6

Reach for the book: It is a weapon.

1935

★ 3.6

War is like love, it always finds a way.

1939

★ 3.6

I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to... A total solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence.

1941

★ 3.6

No one can be good for long when goodness is not in demand.

1943

★ 3.6

The conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.

Henry Kissinger

1969

★ 3.6

A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.

Henry Kissinger

Reflections on Containment · 1994

★ 3.6

Would it not be easier In that case for the government To dissolve the people And elect another?

1956

★ 3.5

Film · Documentary (film)

I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder.

Grizzly Man · 2005

★ 3.5

Political literature

Little do they know that they meet under an empty sky from which the gods have departed.

Hans Morgenthau

1948

★ 3.5

Interview · Magazine

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Albert Einstein

1929

★ 2.9

Interview · Magazine

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Einstein

1929

★ 2.1

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

Albert Einstein

1940

★ 2.1

The pursuit of scientific truth, detached from the practical interests of everyday life, ought to be treated as sacred by every government.

Albert Einstein

1934

★ 2.0

In order to be content men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers.

Albert Einstein

1940

★ 2.0

Interview · Magazine

As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.

Albert Einstein

1945

★ 2.0

Scientific literature

Common sense is actually nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen.

Albert Einstein

1948

★ 2.0

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.

Albert Einstein

1950

★ 2.0

The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, however persistent.

Albert Einstein

1955

★ 2.0

Interview · Magazine

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

Albert Einstein

1955

★ 2.0

Food comes first, then morals.

1928

★ 1.9

If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Albert Einstein

1929

★ 1.9

Essay · Magazine

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.

Albert Einstein

1930

★ 1.9

Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and if necessary, quick action on the part of the Administration.

Albert Einstein

1939

★ 1.9

Truly, I am living in a time of darkness.

1939

★ 1.9

Autobiography and memoir

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader.

Albert Einstein

1943

★ 1.9

Scientific literature

The grand aim of all science [is] to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest possible number of hypotheses or axioms.

Albert Einstein

1948

★ 1.9

The works of art, by being publicly exhibited and offered for sale, are becoming articles of trade, following as such the unreasoning laws of markets and fashion; and public and even private patronage is swayed by their tyrannical influence.

Albert, Prince Consort

1851

★ 1.8

If you look at a dog following the advice of his nose, he traverses a patch of land in a completely unplottable manner. And he invariably finds what he's looking for.

2001

★ 1.7

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

Albert Einstein

1931

★ 1.1

Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors; [..] concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Albert Einstein

1931

★ 1.1

Interview · Magazine

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two thirds of the people of the earth might be killed, but enough men capable of thinking, and enough books, would be left to start again, and civilization could be restored.

Albert Einstein

1945

★ 1.1

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.

Albert Einstein

1954

★ 1.1