Albert Einstein Quotes On Imagination: (Why Is Imagination So Important For Our Well-Being)

The greatest lesson Albert Einstein had to teach is that science and spirituality are not separate things, but are essentially one and the same. So while most of us live more in either one world or the other, he was able to exist simultaneously in a blend of both. The unification of logic and love seemed to give him a super ability to understand the nature of reality far more than nearly anyone else who has lived. He was, without a doubt, a special individual.

Out of admiration, I wish to share a few special Albert Einstein quotes on imagination that I have found inspirational. I hope they will also arouse respect for the creative process that is inherent within all of us. Because without imagination, we would never be able to dream of, or create, anything new. Without imagination, life would indeed be very dull and boring!

Albert Einstein Quotes on Imagination

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.”

Knowledge is finite and is composed of what is already known. We can never ‘know’ anything NEW, because how can we know what doesn’t already exist? Knowing something requires that we have direct experience of it. If we lived our lives according to only that which we already know, nothing new could be thought of or developed.

This is why we need Imagination. “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”  Whenever we come across a problem or a desire for something different, the solution must first be dreamed up in our creative minds. New problems give birth to new thoughts and new solutions. And new solutions require that we change ourselves to become more than we were before.

The ability to create as a result of what we can imagine is what separates us from other life forms on this beautiful planet. To evolve, we must change the relationship we have with ourselves and with the environment, we exist within.

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Everything that humankind has invented, done, and pursued, first began with a thought. When there is no desire to create anything, or do anything, no thought is required. If we desire to do something that has been done before, like getting out of bed, we just have a thought and our autonomic nervous system ensures that we follow a well-known path to get the desired result.

We merely need to think it’s time to get up, and then our intelligent bodies will go through the same motions we have done thousands of times before. We’ll pull back the bed covers, swing our legs off the side of the bed, sit up and then stand up, and so on. It is our previous thoughts, over many years that have come up with this process that allows us to exist, without effort, in the world as we know it.

Known stuff, like getting out of bed and hundreds of other tasks we repeat every day, don’t require the use of our creative imagination. These actions and responses to life’s repetitive situations can easily be carried out by our subconscious mind.

For situations that we have not encountered before, we need to engage the power of our conscious, imaginative, creative minds. We need to dream up new ideas and solutions to new problems. And the ability with which we can engage in the creative process will determine how successful we are.

“The creative imagination is the essential element of a true scientist, and fairy tales are the childhood stimulus to this quality.”

I remember going through the school system and then completing university. Now it seems like so many lifetimes ago. However, what stands out for me was the fact that we were hit with the ruler by the teachers if they thought we were daydreaming. Had they never read and understood anything that Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the last century, taught about education? It seems not!

We have two distinct hemispheres of our brains for a reason….. And the reason is not so we can develop just the logical left side to pass (often) pointless exams! Duality exists for a reason. There is no escaping the fact that ‘the whole of life’ requires the existence of two complementary parts.

Up cannot exist without down, day has night, in has out, left has right, male has female, and love has the absence of love (fear). We cannot know and understand what one is without comparing it to its partner. Meaning can only be derived because we are comparing one thing to another. And balance can only be achieved by bringing the two together.

So why would we consider that we are educated when we are indoctrinated in a system that glorifies logic and disrespects our creative intelligence…. especially since it is our creative side that gives rise to all innovation and progress!

Fortunately for us, it is never too late to stimulate our creativity. So which fairy tales should we read (to the kids?) tonight….. No kids? What about the cat, or the house plant? They like a good story as much as the kids do….. (you just need to imagine it!)

“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

We are born, and one day we will leave these physical bodies. What we do during our time is up to us. Some people lead very meek and sheltered lives while others seek out every thrill and adventure that they can. And the rest of us exist somewhere in between.

Our thoughts and subsequent actions are a product of the mindsets we develop along our journey. And the content and circumstances of our lives are therefore determined by our thoughts. Some people choose logic as a predominant way of viewing life. And others engage their imagination to envisage a future different from the current reality that is staring them in the face.

It is these dreamers, including Einstein, Nicola Tesla, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk, to name a few, who have significantly changed the world. They were able to dream up, visualize creatively, or imagine new ideas, technologies, and products that touched and improved the lives of people all over the world.

If they had stopped dreaming, or never begun engaging their imaginations, we would be living in a different world than we currently are. However, it is fortunate for us that they chose to align their creative energies with the never-ending stream of well-being that exists everywhere and at all times.

This stream of well-being is available for us all to tap into, just as it was for them. However, they chose, desired, and actively (with a passion) sought out an intense connection to this creative energy stream.

Whereas, many of us choose to get a job, go to work, collect our pay, and go home and watch TV. We decline in vitality when we are not connected and therefore not receiving this vital life-force energy…… but it doesn’t have to be this way!

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

Doing the same stuff day in and day out can help to pay the bills, feed the kids, and secure a comfortable life. And while this is in itself admirable, it leaves a lot that is unexplored.

Do you remember when you were young? We used to love to run around and play make-believe and dress-ups and imagine all sorts of unreal scenarios. Sometimes these ideas were so far outside of reality that they made us all laugh.

However, they also served a serious purpose. This play and imagination stimulated the creative pathways in our brains and made our brains grow. They helped develop our intelligence and at the same time, they made us happy! And there is nothing more important than the way we feel.

Do you understand why feeling good is so important? Because we cannot get to the end of our lives and be happy with our experience if the steps along the way were not happy and fun!

So begin now to notice how you are feeling. Do it often and use your imagination, your creativity, to align you with the source of well-being that is always present for you to tap into. Don’t leave it until your last days to become happy! And even if you are already happy, there is still more and more fun to be had….. just use your imagination and follow your heart……

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.”

This is an appropriate quote, to sum up. It is one of the most powerful testaments ever to the power of imagination and creative thinking.

Einstein, one of the greatest minds that ever lived said he never used logic to discover anything new! The lesson here for us is that if we want to be creative geniuses, we need to throw away our textbooks and the normal procedures we use for problem-solving (at least some of the time). Because, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, nothing new can ever be envisioned from that which we already know!

We are entering a new world with new problems. And this requires that we come up with new solutions because as the man himself said:

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”