quote · Legacy record
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead —his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.
Approximate author period: c. 1917 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Albert Einstein
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1917 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1879 to 1955; Wikidata Q937, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q937 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 43756; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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