1920s, Viereck interview (1929)
Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97; also in Transformation : Arts, Communication, Environment (1950) by Harry Holtzman, p. 138. This may be an edited version of some nearly identical quotes from the 1929 Viereck interview below.
1930s
Context: I believe in intuition and inspiration. … 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.
“Personality is more important than beauty, but imagination is more important than both of them.”
The Quality You Need Most, from Green Book Magazine (April 1914)
“Curiosity is more important than knowledge.”
Variant: Imagination is more imortant than Knowledge
“Your imagination, my dear fellow, is worth more than you imagine.”
Source: Learning by knowledge‐intensive firms," 1992, p. 715
“The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.”
As quoted in New Scientist (February 1993), p. 42
“Hold on to your dreams, Kiall. They are more important than you realise.”
Source: Drenai series, Quest for Lost Heroes, Ch. 5
