Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert Einstein · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · poster culture, late 20th century
What does it mean?
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. The sentence is not in his writings. He did say, in a 1929 interview with George Sylvester Viereck, that imagination is more important than knowledge, that knowledge is limited, and that imagination encircles the world. That is a different remark, with its own caveats. A rival reading says the fake is close enough, a fair popularisation. His actual work is a terrible example of the insult to logic. Imagination, in the physics, ran on mathematics and constraint. Similarity is how the fake survives.
Did Albert Einstein really say this?
The library’s label is Misattributed. Not found in Einstein's writings. He did talk about imagination in a 1929 interview with George Sylvester Viereck ('Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world'), which is an interview remark with its own caveats. This A-to-B sentence is a different, unsourced line.
Where it comes from
No reliable Einstein source
Approximate date: poster culture, late 20th century.
How to use it
If you want a true caution from him, use the 1921 line about mathematics and reality, which is sourced, or read the 1929 interview in context. Leave this one on the poster in the design studio. The studio can still value imagination. It does not need a counterfeit to do so.
A mindset reading
The Viereck interview is often over-read as anti-intellectual. Even that real remark does not say logic is a shuttle bus and imagination is the universe. This library keeps the two apart on purpose.
Understand the philosophy
A fake can sit next to a real remark that sounds a bit like it. The neighbourhood is the disguise. Quotation marks are a claim about words, not about a neighbourhood of ideas.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. The sentence is not in his writings. He did say, in a 1929 interview with George Sylvester Viereck, that imagination is more important than knowledge, that knowledge is limited, and that imagination encircles the world. That is a different remark, with its own caveats. A rival reading says the fake is close enough, a fair popularisation. His actual work is a terrible example of the insult to logic. Imagination, in the physics, ran on mathematics and constraint. Similarity is how the fake survives.
Did Albert Einstein really say this?
Misattributed. Not found in Einstein's writings. He did talk about imagination in a 1929 interview with George Sylvester Viereck ('Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world'), which is an interview remark with its own caveats. This A-to-B sentence is a different, unsourced line.
Which work is it in?
No reliable Einstein source Approximate date: poster culture, late 20th century.