Eric's Beijing Diary

Albert Einstein died fifty years ago today. Not sure why that is such big news in China, but Einstein is very highly regarded in the Chinese academic community. Here are a few of the more noteworthy things Einstein said during his life:

• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
  

• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
  

• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
  

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

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

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

• "We can't solve our 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."
  

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

• "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."
  

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

• If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
  

• The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
  

• The important thing is not to stop questioning.
  

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

• "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."