So often in life when things are good or things are bad we are reminded of, or usually told by that wise arse friend some meaningful quote to either make us feel better, or often worse. I personally love quotes as they mean two things to me:
- Smarter people than me have been in the same situation and survived.
- There are often few words which can explain complex feelings, people or situations.
I think point two is mostly lost in that the ‘quotes’ our parents said to us were corny and usually involved some life lesson that we weren’t ready for or mostly did not understand.
“count to ten when you are angry”
“a stitch in time saves nine”
“a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”
Oh God, the wisdom of our parents can be found, in later life, just when you realise that you did completely the opposite and fucked things up.
But, the real reason I love quotes is that smarter people have been where I am heading, or just been, or plan to go. Einstein has many quotes which have been my mantras for years – all duly disregarded until after the fact and I repeat them to myself and say “Einstein warned you of this…. and you did it again.”
One quote which has stuck with me for years is:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
I have always loved this quote and espoused it to anyone who would listen, and even those who wouldn’t – why I continued to repeat my mistakes over and over again…. Which in itself indicates to me I am not as smart as I thought I was. (I love the Einstein quote when he was asked what it was like to be the smartest man in the world and he said “I don’t know ask Nicola Tesla.” – even really smart people know there are people smarter than them!)
But, what prompted this little rant this morning is the quote:
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
I suppose somehow over the last couple of years this has become a realisation to me. Things that really counted to me, couldn’t be counted – but, I was counting everything else to gauge my success, wealth and happiness.
I want to think more like Einstein – not in solving the secrets of the universe but in “Not trying to be become a man of success, but by trying to become a man of value – a better man” (bastardised Einstein quote!).
I do have a quotes section on my blog page – but can’t remember the last time I updated it – probably because profound quotes are not the way we think daily but only when giving a speech or when things turn to shit – and as said above it’s usually some smart arse just taking the piss. Maybe quotes that truely guide our lives should become more of our lives – instead of tattoos of Chinese symbols for love and faith we should have quotes tattooed upon us to remind us, forever, that good choices are actually choices….
So I thought I should finish off with a list of Einstein quotes, and hope that you find something in them for you – or at least throw one in your kids face next time they stuff up.
1. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for 
existing.”
2. “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
3. “Truth is what stands the test of experience.”
4. “The only source of knowledge is experience.”
5. “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
6. “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there.”
7. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
8. “Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”
9. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
10. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” 
11. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
12. “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
13. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”
14. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
15. “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
16. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
17. “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
18. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
19. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”
20. “Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.” 
21. “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
22. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”
23. “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.”
24. “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.”
25. “Information is not knowledge.”
26. “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
27. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”
28. “Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.”
29. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
30. “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
31. “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”
32. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
33. “You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.”
34. “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
35. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
36. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
37. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
38. “The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”
39. “The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”
40. “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” 
41. “Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
42. “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”
43. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’n not sure about the universe.”
44. “Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”
45. “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
46. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
47. “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
48. “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
49. “The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
50. “Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”
51. “As a human being, one has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists.”
52. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
53. “I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.”
54. “Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events.”
55. “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
(I put this last quote picture at the bottom because only older people have the inclination or the perception of time well spent to learn something new the old way – through perseverance ….. )