Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge

In 1931 the book “Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms” by Albert Einstein was published. This volume contained the same saying, but the surrounding text was phrased somewhat differently:^[2]

At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. When the eclipse of 1919 confirmed my intuition, I was not in the least surprised. In fact, I would have been astonished had it turned out otherwise. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.

1931年，阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦所著的《宇宙宗教及其他观点和格言》一书出版了。这一卷包含相同的说法，但周围的文字措辞略有不同:[2] 有时我觉得自己是对的，但不知道为什么。当1919年的日食证实了我的直觉时，我一点也不惊讶。事实上，如果结果不是这样，我会感到惊讶的。想象力比知识更重要。因为知识是有限的，而想象力包含整个世界，刺激进步，孕育进化。严格地说，它是科学研究中的一个真正的因素。