TIMELY WISDOM

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Albert Einstein Quotes

"God is subtle, but he is not malicious." (from a visit to Princeton University, NJ, 1921)

- "At any rate, I am convinced that He does not play dice." (from a letter to Max Born, 1926)

- "The cosmic religious experience is the strongest force and the noblest driving force behind scientific research." (from "Religion and Science" published in New York Times Magazine, 1930)

- "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." (from an interview, 1930)

- "All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded to the individual." (from a public statement, 1933)

- "I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure characters is the only thing that can produce fine ideas and noble deeds. Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it.
Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the moneybags of Carnegie." (from "The World As I See It", 1934)

- "The state is made for man, not man for the State." (from "The World As I See It", 1934)

- "The eternal mystery of the wolrd is its comprehensibility." (from "Physics and Reality" published in Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1936)

- "Some recent work by E[nrico] Fermi and L[eo] Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the immediate future. Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seem to call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the part of Administration. ...
It may be possible to set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. ...
This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable -though much less certain- that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.." (from a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939)

- "For the present [atomic energy] is a menace. Perhaps it is as well that it should be. It may intimidate the human race to bring order into its international affairs, which, without the pressure of fear, it undoubtedly would not do." (from "Einstein on the Atomic Bomb" published in Atlantic, 1945)

- "One can organize to apply a discovery already made, but not to make one. Only a free individual can make a discovery. ... Can you imagine an organization of scientist making the discoveries of Charles Darwin?" (from "Einstein on the Atomic Bomb" published in Atlantic, 1945)

- "The use of small quantities [of uranium], suffcient, say, to operate a car or an airplane so far is impossible, and one cannot predict when it will be achieved. No doubt, it will be achieved, but nobody can say when." (from "Einstein on the Atomic Bomb" published in Atlantic, 1945)

- "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." (from "The Einstein Letter That Started It All" published in New York Times Magazine, 1946)

- "Science has brought forth this danger, but the real problem is in the minds and hearts of men. We will not change the hearts of other men by mechanisms, but by changing our hearts and speaking bravely. …
When we are clear in heart and mind - only then shall we find courage to surmount the fear which haunts the world." (from "The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men" published in New York Times Magazine, 1946)

- "There is no greater satisfaction for a just and well-meaning person than the knowledge that he has devoted his best energies to the service of the good cause." (from "The Negro Question" published in Pageant, 1946)

- "No great discovery was ever made in science except by one who lifted his nose above the grindstone of details and vetured on a more comprehensive vision." (from "The Meaning of Human History", 1947)

- "Any government is in itself an evil insofar as it carries within it the tendency to deteriorate into tyranny." (from "A Reply to the Soviet Scientists" published in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1948)

- "Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it." (from "Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist", 1949)

- "A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises is, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended is its area of applicability." (from "Notes for an Autobiography" published in Saturday Review, 1949)

- "Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being." (from "Why Socialism" published in Monthly Review, 1949)

- "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." (from an article published in Observer, 1950)

- "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon the earth." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulated the creative mind." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Only through perils and upheavals can Nations be brough to further developments. May the present upheavals lead to a better world." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem -in my opinion- to characterize our age." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Routine becomes of no avail under the swift change of conditions; conventions fall away like dry husks." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "The more cruel the wrong that men commit against an individual or a people, the deeper their hatred and contempt for their victim. Conceit and false pride on the part of a nation prevent the rise of remorse for its crime." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "To be a Jew ... means first of all to acknowledge and follow in practice those fundamentals in humaneness laid down in the Bible." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "Truth is what stands the test of experience." (from "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

- "One is born into a hedr of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled underfoot before one's time." (from a letter, 1952)

- "I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it." (from a letter, 1953)

- "If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances." (from a letter to a reporter, 1954)

- "The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force." (from "My Credo" published in Wisdom, 1956)

- "Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized." (from "My Credo" published in Wisdom, 1956)

- "Ideas come from God." (from "My Friend, Albert Einstein" by Banesh Hoffman)

- "Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player." (from "What Life MEans to Einstein" by George Sylvester Viereck)

- "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." (from "What Life Means to Einstein" by George Sylvester Viereck)

- "The most beautiful emotion we can expreience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in primitive form -this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devout religious men." (from "Einstein: His life and Times" by Phillip Frank)

- "I have just got a new theory of eternity." (from "A Statue Without Stature" by Daniel S. Greenberg)

- "The grant aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms." (from "The Meaning of Einstein's New Theory" by Lincoln Barnett)

- "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." (from "Quotable Quotes")

- "The intellect has little to do on the road to doscovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why."

- "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute -and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity."

- "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."



Have a Say?
Submit additional information | Correct Mistakes

No comments:

Post a Comment