I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

The best-attested form of this saying comes from a 1929 interview Albert Einstein gave to journalist George Sylvester Viereck. In that conversation, Einstein was asked about the role of imagination in scientific work and about the future of knowledge. His reply contrasts the finite, provisional character of what is currently known with the creative faculty that allows scientists to form new hypotheses and conceptual models. The line “I am enough of an artist…” reflects Einstein’s self-description of theoretical physics as requiring intuitive, picture-making leaps, not merely accumulation of facts—an attitude consistent with his emphasis on thought experiments and conceptual innovation.

Einstein contrasts two modes of understanding: knowledge as the catalog of what is already established, and imagination as the generative power that can propose new models, questions, and possibilities. “Knowledge is limited” does not dismiss learning; it marks its dependence on current evidence and accepted frameworks. Imagination “encircles the world” because it can range beyond present facts, connecting disparate phenomena and anticipating discoveries not yet made. The line also defends the creative, almost artistic dimension of theoretical physics: breakthroughs often begin as conceptual leaps—thought experiments, analogies, and daring hypotheses—later disciplined by mathematics and empirical test.

1) “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world…”
2) “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”