Albert Einstein — "The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of…"
The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the sower of all true art and science.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Albert Einstein
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
"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."
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Details
Similar to his 'mysterious' quote, but 'mystical' sometimes used as a variant.
Date: 1931
EducationalVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
The deepest, most profound human experience is a sense of wonder at things beyond full comprehension. This feeling of awe before mystery is the essential seed from which genuine creative and scientific work grows. Without it, art becomes decoration and science becomes mere calculation. Authentic achievement in either domain begins with being genuinely moved by what you cannot yet explain.
Relevance to Albert Einstein
Einstein repeatedly credited wonder and intuitive feeling over pure calculation. He described his discovery of relativity not through equations but through imagining riding a light beam—a mystical thought experiment. He played violin to access non-rational insight. He wrote extensively that scientists who lack the capacity for awe are no better than craftsmen, firmly believing emotional sensitivity was prerequisite to his greatest breakthroughs.
The era
Einstein wrote this in the early 20th century as scientific rationalism and logical positivism dominated intellectual culture, reducing truth to what was measurable and verifiable. Against this mechanistic tide, he defended the emotional and intuitive dimensions of discovery. Simultaneously, modernist art movements—Expressionism, Surrealism—were similarly rejecting pure rationality, making his words resonate across both scientific and artistic communities grappling with meaning after World War I.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].