As reported in Einstein — A Life (1996) by Denis Brian, when asked about a clipping from a magazine article reporting his comments on Christianity as taken down by Viereck, Einstein carefully read the clipping and replied, "That is what I believe." .
1920s, Viereck interview (1929)
Albert Einstein: Citáty v angličtine (page 3)
Albert Einstein bol nemecko-americký fyzik a zakladateľ teórie relativity. Citáty v angličtine.
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From Cosmic Religion: with Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931), Albert Einstein, pub. Covici-Friede. Quoted in The Expanded Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press; 2nd edition (May 30, 2000); Page 208, ISBN 0691070210
1930s
“Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.”
The source generally (but falsely) cited is Einstein's The World As I See It http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_as_I_See_It_(book) (1949). The quotation is probably a translation of "Der Zufall ist das Pseudonym, das der liebe Gott wählt, wenn er inkognito bleiben will" (attributed to Albert Schweitzer).
Disputed
Earliest published version found on Google Books with this phrasing is in the 1993 book The Internet Companion: A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking by Tracy L. LaQuey and Jeanne C. Ryer, p. 25 http://books.google.com/books?id=sP5SAAAAMAAJ&q=meowing#search_anchor. However, the quote seems to have been circulating on the internet earlier than this, appearing for example in this post from 1987 http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c/msg/cc89abb5e065d23f?hl=en and this one from 1985 http://groups.google.com/group/net.sources.games/browse_thread/thread/846af15b5a38c35/3d6d5a639c24bba3. No reference has been found that cites a source in Einstein's original writings, and the quote appears to be a variation of an old joke that dates at least as far back as 1866, as discussed in this entry from the "Quote Investigator" blog http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/02/24/telegraph-cat/#more-3387. A variant was told by Thomas Edison, appearing in The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 216 http://books.google.com/books?id=NXtEAAAAIAAJ&q=edinburgh#search_anchor: "When I was a little boy, persistently trying to find out how the telegraph worked and why, the best explanation I ever got was from an old Scotch line repairer who said that if you had a dog like a dachshund long enough to reach from Edinburgh to London, if you pulled his tail in Edinburgh he would bark in London. I could understand that. But it was hard to get at what it was that went through the dog or over the wire." A variant of Edison's comment can be found in the 1910 book Edison, His Life and Inventions, Volume 1 by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin, p. 53 http://books.google.com/books?id=qN83AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA53#v=onepage&q&f=false.
The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.
Variant, earliest known published version is How to Think Like Einstein by Scott Thorpe (2000), p. 61 http://books.google.com/books?id=9yrYQxBgIYEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q&f=false. Appeared on the internet before that, as in this archived page from 12 October 1999 http://web.archive.org/web/19991012152820/http://stripe.colorado.edu/%7Ejudy/einstein/advice.html
Misattributed
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.”
From "Atomic Education Urged by Einstein" https://web.archive.org/web/20140622171150/http://www.turnthetide.info/id54.htm, New York Times (25 May 1946), and later quoted in the article "The Real Problem is in the Hearts of Man" by Michael Amrine, from the New York Times Magazine (23 June 1946). A slightly modified version of the 23 June article was reprinted in Einstein on Peace by Otto Nathan and Heinz Norden (1960), and it was also reprinted in Einstein on Politics by David E. Rowe and Robert Schulmann (2007), p. 383.
In The New Quotable Einstein (2005), editor Alice Calaprice suggests that two quotes attributed to Einstein which she could not find sources for, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them" and "The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them," may both be paraphrases of the 1946 quote above. A similar unsourced variant is "The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking."
In the 23 June article Einstein expanded somewhat on the original quote from the 25 May article:
: Many persons have inquired concerning a recent message of mine that "a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move to higher levels."
: Often in evolutionary processes a species must adapt to new conditions in order to survive. Today the atomic bomb has altered profoundly the nature of the world as we knew it, and the human race consequently finds itself in a new habitat to which it must adapt its thinking.
: In the light of new knowledge, a world authority and an eventual world state are not just desirable in the name of brotherhood, they are necessary for survival. In previous ages a nation's life and culture could be protected to some extent by the growth of armies in national competition. Today we must abandon competition and secure cooperation. This must be the central fact in all our considerations of international affairs; otherwise we face certain disaster. Past thinking and methods did not prevent world wars. Future thinking must prevent wars.
1940s
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Variously attributed also to Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. The earliest known occurrence, and probable origin, is from a 1981 text from Narcotics Anonymous: "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." Cf. Rita Mae Brown#Misattributed.
Misattributed
Varianta: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Zdroj: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 14
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
Varianta: If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
Varianta: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Varianta: Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.
“It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”
Varianta: It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.
Said to Samuel J Woolf, Berlin, Summer 1929. Cited with additional notes in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice and Freeman Dyson, Princeton UP (2010) p 230
1920s
Varianta: If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
“Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.”
Varianta: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
1950s
Kontext: In matters concerning truth 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 truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.
(1955) as quoted in Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives (1997) ed. , p. 388, from The Centennial Symposium in Jerusalem (1979)
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”
Varianta: Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.