The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery—even if mixed with fear—that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.
—Albert Einstein, “The World As I See It”
我们能体验到的最美好的事物是神秘的。它是真正艺术和真正科学的摇篮的基本情感。不知道的人，不再感到惊奇，不再感到惊奇，就像死了一样，熄灭了蜡烛。这是神秘的经历，即使与产生宗教的恐惧混合在一起。一种我们无法穿透的事物的知识，最深邃的理性和最灿烂的美的表现，它们只能以我们的理性以最基本的形式来达到，正是这种知识和这种情感构成了真正的宗教态度；这种感觉，在这方面，我是一个虔诚的人。我不能想象一个上帝奖励和惩罚他的生物，或者有一种我们自己意识到的意志。一个应该在肉体死亡中生存的人，我也无法理解，我也不希望如此；这种观念是为了软弱的灵魂的恐惧或荒谬的利己主义。对我来说，生命永恒的奥秘和现实奇妙的结构，以及对一个部分的单方面努力，足以证明它在自然界中显现的原因，就足够了。
-阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦，“我所看到的世界”（谷歌翻译仅供参考）