Who said "Imagination is more important than knowledge"?
Quick answer
Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge” in an interview with journalist George Sylvester Viereck, published in The Saturday Evening Post on October 26, 1929. He went on to explain that knowledge is limited, while imagination encircles the world.
Unlike many quotes credited to Einstein, this one is genuinely his, and it has a clear source.
The context
Viereck asked Einstein whether he trusted his intuition or his knowledge more. Einstein replied that he was enough of an artist to draw freely on his imagination, and that imagination is more important than knowledge, because knowledge is limited to what we already know and understand, while imagination embraces the whole world, stimulating progress.
He expressed a similar idea in his 1931 book Cosmic Religion, describing imagination as “a real factor in scientific research.”
What he meant
Einstein wasn’t saying knowledge is unimportant. He was a physicist who relied on mathematics and evidence. His point was that new discoveries start with imagined possibilities, which knowledge then tests.
His famous thought experiments show this:
- At 16, he imagined chasing a beam of light, a question that eventually led to his theory of special relativity (1905).
- He imagined a person in a falling elevator, which helped him develop general relativity (1915).
Quotes Einstein probably didn’t say
| Quote | Status |
|---|---|
| “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” | No evidence he said it |
| “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree…” | No evidence he said it |
| “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” | Verified, 1929 |
For more quote origins, see who said “The future depends on what you do today”, another line whose source is less certain.
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