Einstein In His Own Words

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

QuoteBank

Twenty Famous Quotes 8 God 10 Science 12 War and Peace 15 Education and Teaching 17 Wisdom 19 Funny Quotes 21 Society 23 Personal 25 Einstein’s Historic speeches

The Principles of Research 28 German League of Human Rights 30

Albert Einstein as Author

The World as I See It 32 Out of my Later Years 33 Relativity: The Special and General Theory 34

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He was a genius of the highest order who changed the way we perceive the universe with his theories. The Times has hailed him as Person of the Century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. One of the most br i l l iant sc ient i s t s and an extraordinary man. He was also deeply compassionate and wanted to help his fellow man. A man of letters he has voiced his opinion on subjects as diverse as religion and war many of which are relevant even today.

The beginning

Born in Germany on March 14, 1879. Born into a Jewish family. His father Hermann, a salesman

and engineer and his mother Pauline resided in Ulm in the kingdom of Wurttemberg. The family shifted to Munich in 1880. The family was not an orthodox Jewish one and young Albert attended an elementary catholic school. Though young Albert experienced difficulties in speech, he proved to be a brilliant student. When Albert was only five years old his father showed him a pocket compass. Even at this young age Albert felt that there was an unseen force which was guiding the needle. The compass made an indelible impression in Albert’s mind. When he was six his musically coaxed him to learn violin. Though he detested these

lessons the teacher succeeded in developing in him a love for music. Mozart’s violin sonatas were one of his favorite. Albert

displayed a scientific bend of mind from an early age. He tried his hand at building mechanical devices. He also displayed an unusua l ab i l i t y to hand le

Albert Einstein Makes History and Inspires Hope

Albert EinsteinHis Life and Times

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I am enough of an artist to d r a w f r e e l y u p o n m y imagination. Imagination is m o r e i m p o r t a n t t h a n knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein

inclined mother coaxed him to learn violin. Though he detested t h e s e l e s s o n s t h e t e a ch e r succeeded in developing in him a love for music. Mozart’s violin sonatas were one of his favorite. Albert displayed a scientific bend of mind from an early age. He tried his hand at building mechanical devices. He also displayed an unusual ability to handle numbers. When Albert was only ten a medical student w h o w a s a l s o h i s f r i e n d introduced him to books on mathematics and philosophy. Albert’s sharp mind was quick to grasp these subjects. By the age of 12 he had mastered Euclidean geometry. He was a student of the prestigious Luitpold Gymnasium school. Einstein however hated the rules and regulations of the school which he felt thwarted creativity and hindered the free development of thought.

The teens

Albert experienced the first major change in his life when his family left Germany to start a new life in sunny Italy. It was here that he took the first tentative steps that would take him down the road of greatness. He wrote his first scientific work, "The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic Fields". Einstein did not complete High School. He decided to apply to ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Te c h n o l o g y i n Z ü r i c h , Switzerland. As he had not cleared High School he was required to pass an entrance examination. Unfortunately Einstein failed even though he s e c u r e d h i g h m a r k s i n mathematics and physics. Failure did not deter him. Einstein was gifted with an extraordinary mind. When he was only 16, he conceived a bold experiment in

which he visualized traveling along a beam of light. He decided to finish secondary school from A a r a u , S w i t z e r l a n d . A t Switzerland he experienced the pangs of love when he fell in love with Marie. The love affair was doomed to failure. At 17 he graduated from High School and finally secured admission in ETH. Switzerland polished his natural abilities. He had followed his father’s advice and renounced his German citizenship. In 1896, Einstein came into contact with his future wife Mileva Marić. She was his fellow student and had the honor of being the only student of her sex to study mathematics in ETH. In 1900 Einstein secured a degree in physics. In the same year one of Einstein’s friends introduced him to the works of Ernst Mach which was to have a major influence in his life. The very next year, Einstein publ i shed a paper in the prestigious Annalen der Physik on the capillary forces of straw. He also took Swiss citizenship in the same year.

The first steps

Even though Einste in had graduated, he failed to secure a teaching job. After struggling for two years he finally got a job in Berne at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property, the patent office, as an assistant examiner. His first job was to evaluate patent for e lectromagnet ic devices. Though Einstein’s life was monotonous he managed to form a club on science with like minded friends called “The O l y m p i a A c a d e m y " . T h e members of the club held weekly meetings and pored over the works of Poincare, Mach, and Hume who were to have a profound influence on him. As

part of his job he dealt with transmission of electric signals a n d e l e c t r i c a l - m e ch a n i c a l synchronization of time. These technical problems would be later used in Einstein’s experiments.

Personal life

Einstein married his former classmate Mileva Marić on 6 January 1903 despite opposition from his mother. They were blessed with a son Hans Albert Einstein who was born in Berne. Another son Eduard was born in Zurich. The marriage did not survive and finally ended in a divorcé in February 1919. Einstein did not remain single for long. In the same year he tied the knot with Elsa Löwenthal who was his cousin. Elsa had two daughters from a previous marriage who grew up in the Einstein household.

That Wonderful Year

In the year 1905, while he was still working in the patent office a leading German physic journal published four papers written by Einstein. History was to later name these paper s Annus Mirabilis Papers which are now recognized as masterpieces in science. The germs of fame were sown. One of his papers dealing with the particulate nature of light expounded the idea that certain experimental results, notably the photoelectric effect, could be simply understood from the postulate that light interacts w i t h m a t t e r a s d i s c r e t e "packets" (quanta) of energy. Another paper on Brownian motion explained the random movement of very small objects as direct evidence of molecular action, supported the atomic theor y. Hi s paper on the

electrodynamics of moving bodies proclaimed the new theory of special relativity, which showed that the observed independence of the speed of light on the observer ' s s tate of motion required fundamental changes to the notion of simultaneity. In his p a p e r o n m a s s – e n e r g y equivalence , Einstein gave birth to one of twentieth century’s most well known equation: E  = mc2. This paper proved that even small amounts of matter could be used to make massive amounts of energy. His theory foreshadowed the advent of nuclear power. Though the year 1905 is now recognized as one of the most wonderful years of Einstein’s life, where he made ground breaking achievements the papers were not well received by the scientific community. They were mostly ignored and the few who noticed them did not agree with them. At the age of 26 Einstein had another achievement under his belt. He was awarded the PhD by the University of Zurich. He had studied under Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics.

Road to Greatness

In 1906, Einstein received a promotion from the patent office. H i s d e s i g n a t i o n w a s n ow Technical Examiner. Meanwhile Einstein continued his education. The year 1908 found him as a privatdozent at the University of Bern. In 1910 he wrote another now famous paper in which he described the cumulative effect of light scattered by individual molecules in the atmosphere

proving the scientific reason behind why the sky appeared to be blue. During 1909, Einstein published "Über die Entwicklung unserer Anschauungen über das Wesen und die Konstitution der Strahlung" ("The Development of Our Views on the Composition and Essence of Radiation"), on the quantization of light. It gave the photon concept which was later used to prove wave–particle duality in quantum mechanics. Finally Einstein was able to leave

his job at the patent office when he was appointed associate professor at the University of Zurich. He switched jobs and took up the job of a professor at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. While he was working in Prague he published another of his path breaking papers dealing with effects of gravity on light. In 1912 Einstein became the professor of his former collage at ETH. He c a m e i n t o c o n t a c t w i t h

M a t h e m a t i c i a n M a r c e l Grossmann. Einstein began to take an interest in Riemannian geometry. Einstein now began toying with the possibilities of using general covariance in proving his theory on gravitation. His research yielded fruit and by 1915 he had published a ground breaking paper on the theory of relativity which is used till today. Meanwhile Einstein decided to go back to Berlin. He became a member of the Prussian Academy

of Sciences and professor a t t h e H u m b o l d t University of Berlin. He w a s f r e e f r o m m o s t teaching assignments to enable him to devote more time to research. Another honor came his way. In 1914 he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Inst i tute for Physics which he served till 1 9 3 2 . M e a n w h i l e Einstein’s fame began to spread. Some of the extraordinary work he had done reached UK and the US. After World War I he w a s a p p o i n t e d a s Extraordinary Professor of the Leiden University.

Fame and the Nobel Prize

Further recognition of his genius followed. In May 1919,a team of British astronomers stated that they had confirmed Einstein’s earlier prediction of g rav i ta t iona l deflec t ion o f starlight by the Sun while photographing a solar eclipse in Sobral, northern Brazil, and Príncipe. The headlines of Times a renowned British newspaper s c r e a m e d ” Re v o l u t i o n i n Science  – New Theory of the Universe  – Newtonian Ideas Overthrown”. Nobel laureate

Research

After completing his research on genera l re lat iv i ty E ins te in concentrated on the theory of gravitation. His objective was to simplify the basic laws of physics dealing with gravitation and electromagnetism. . In 1950, he described this "unified field theory" in a Scientific American a r t i c l e e n t i t l e d " O n t h e G e n e r a l i z e d T h e o r y o f Gravitation" However he could not realize his dream and his efforts did not bear fruit. In the year 1924, Einstein was given a description of a statistical model from Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, based on a counting method that assumed that light could be understood as a gas of indi s t ingui shable par t ic les. Einstein submitted a translated version of Bose‘s paper the Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein also made original contributions by publishing his own articles describing the model and its implications, which included the B o s e – E i n s t e i n c o n d e n s a t e phenomenon that made an a p p e a r a n c e a t v e r y l o w temperatures Einstein- Bose statistics are now used to describe the behaviors of any assembly of "bosons". The path that Einstein chose to travel in was a novel one. He however did not live to see the seed he had sown blossom into a fertile plant. Decades later in 1995 the first such condensate was produced experimentally by Eric Allin Cornell and Carl Wieman using ultra-cooling equipment built at the NIST-JILA laboratory at the University of C o l o r a d o a t B o u l d e r . Coordinating with his former student Leo Szilard, Einstein invented a refrigerator bearing his name. This unique refrigerator had no moving parts and was

developed using only heat as an input.

A new development took place in the scientific world. In the 1920s q u a n t u m m e c h a n i c s w a s developed into a complete theory. Einstein did not see eye to eye w i t h t h e " C o p e n h a g e n interpretation" of quantum theory developed by Niels Bohr. He felt that the description of nature advocated by this theory was incomplete and left much to b e d e s i r e d . E i n s t e i n i n collaboration with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, observed that the theory seemed to require non-local interactions; this is known as the EPR paradox . The EPR experiment has s ince been p e r f o r m e d , w i t h r e s u l t s confirming quantum theory's predictions.

World figure

Einstein was now regarded as one of the great figures the world had ever produced. Such was the effect of his personality that his views were sought and aired on a wide variety of subjects’ including God and nature. A deeply compassionate man he was associated with humanitarian, social and political projects all over the world. The world was changing rapidly. Germany witnessed turbulent times with the rapid rise of Hitler and Nazism. Einstein was a strong critic of Nazism. His political belief veered around socialist Zionism. He lent his support to the creation of a Jewish homeland. An apostle of peace Einstein saw with dismay the rise of Hitler and the aggressive postures he assumed. When Hitler became Chancellor, one of his first actions was to remove Jews from high positions. Einstein could foresee that he had no place in Nazi Germany. As

early as 1932 Einstein left his homeland and made his home in America.

The last years

The Einsteins decided to settle down in America permanently. They purchased a house in Princeton. Einstein came face to face with tragedy when he lost his wife Elsa in 1936. During the Second World War Einstein did his bit to help his fellow Jews to escape from Germany. He wrote n u m e r o u s a f fi d a v i t s recommending US visas for them. He helped to raise funds for Z ion i s t o rg an i za t i on s . He officially took citizenship of the US in 1940. During the Second World War many scientists feared that Germany had the capacity to develop the atom bomb. In a letter to the then American President Franklin Roosevelt, Einstein urged the American government to develop the bomb. He later regretted his decision. President Roosevelt followed Einstein’s advice .The effort to develop the bomb was called the Manhattan Project. The bomb came into being and was later used against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was over in 1945 but it also marked the beginning of the cold war between the two super powers U S A a n d U S S R a n d t h e beginning of a new arms race. Einstein maintained friendly relations with the Soviet bloc. He advocated one world order. He w a s a l s o a g a i n s t f u r t h e r development of nuclear weapons and lobbied to stop further testing. Einstein was a member of several civi l r ights groups, including the Princeton chapter of the NAACP. He continued to play an active role in public affairs till his death. The end came in 1955. On 17 April Einstein suffered

from internal bleeding. He passed away at the Princeton Hospital. Einstein was 76 years old. He remained active till the end. During his last days he was preparing the draft of a speech which he would have broadcast on the seventh anniversary of the formation of Israel. Prior to his cremation his brain was removed. He was regarded as "the greatest scientist of the twentieth century and one of the supreme intellects of all time."

Portions of this article are from the Einstein Wikipedia article found at:h t t p : / / e n . w i k i p e d i a . o r g / w i k i /Albert_Einstein

Twenty Famous Quotes“I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details” - Albert Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”

- Albert Einstein

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once”

- Albert Einstein

“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” - Albert Einstein

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

- Albert Einstein

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - Albert Einstein

“Science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking?" - Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

- Albert Einstein

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is strangers, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. - Albert Einstein

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler” - Albert Einstein

“Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore” - Albert Einstein

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself." - Albert Einstein

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.” - Albert Einstein

“E = mc²: Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.” - Albert Einstein

“Reading after a certain (time) diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” - Albert Einstein

“The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.” - Albert Einstein

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.”

- Albert Einstein

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

- Albert Einstein.

GodEinstein’s views on God were unconventional. Many branded him as an atheist He did nor believe in a personal God who interfered with the affairs of mankind but believed in the power of a supreme being whose spirit seemed to be governing the universe. In his book The World as I See It, he wrote: "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” Einstein spoke and wrote frequently of God. He looked with wonder at God the creator.

“God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.” - Albert Einstein

“God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.” - Albert Einstein

“God is subtle but he is not malicious” - Albert Einstein

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”

- Albert Einstein

“Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.”

- Albert Einstein

“True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness” - Albert Einstein

“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings”

- Albert Einstein

"I can not accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death or blind faith. I can not prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar." -Albert Einstein

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science” - Albert Einstein

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

- Albert Einstein

“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”

- Albert Einstein

ScienceScience was Einstein’s first love and the passion of his life. Everything else took a back seat to it. He experienced an artist’s joy of creation while exploring the great laws of nature. He is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the twentieth century, a genius whose theories and experiments gave us profound knowledge about the universe and changed the concept of space, time and energy. Till the very end he retained the spirit of joy a child feels about the great phenomena of nature and the curiosity to discover more about them. To him delving in the mysteries of science was an escape from the monotony and problems of the everyday world into a lover’s arms.

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

- Albert Einstein

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

- Albert Einstein

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einstein

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." - Albert Einstein

"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."

- Albert Einstein

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain; they do not refer to reality."

- Albert Einstein

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

- Albert Einstein

"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

- Albert Einstein

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

- Albert Einstein

"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."

- Albert Einstein

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

- Albert Einstein

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”

- Albert Einstein

“It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.”

- Albert Einstein

“It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man's insecurity before himself and before nature.”

- Albert Einstein

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.”

- Albert Einstein

“Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.”

- Albert Einstein

“Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”

- Albert Einstein

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

- Albert Einstein

“The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”

- Albert Einstein

War and Peace An apostle of peace, he abhorred any kind of violence and was a staunch pacifist, who attended the League of Nations and other disarmament groups. He took the extreme view that taking a life even in a war was equal to plain murder. However when Hitler rose to power, Einstein felt everything should be done to stop Hitler. He even wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt, the President of America urging him to develop the atom bomb. He was to rue his decision when the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was reduced to rubble by atom bombs. From then onwards he was a crusader against the bomb and felt that scientists should not help nations to develop destructive armaments. He opposed nationalism and advocated the concept of one world with a world government at the helm.

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”

- Albert Einstein

“So long as there are men there will be wars.”

- Albert Einstein

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!”

- Albert Einstein

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” - Albert Einstein

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” - Albert Einstein

“Force always attracts men of low morality.” - Albert Einstein

“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.” - Albert Einstein

“I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.” - Albert Einstein

“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power in preventing these weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.”

- Albert Einstein

“Human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.” - Albert Einstein

“The pioneers of a warless world are the young men and women who refuse military service.”

-Albert Einstein

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” - Albert Einstein

“Nothing that I can do will change the structure of the universe.But maybe, by raising my voice; I can help in the greatest of all causes-- Goodwill among men and peace on earth.” -Albert Einstein

"It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a reqime that does not maintain any military secrets." - Albert Einstein

"Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit...not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in what we believe is evil."

-Albert Einstein

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

- Albert Einstein

“ We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of pacifism... Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.”

- Albert Einstein

Education and TeachingEinstein’s views on education too were unconventional. He was against the modern methods of education at the school level which squeezed out the pleasure of attaining knowledge. He was against the system of learning by rote which deadened a child’s curiosity. According to him an ideal teacher was the one who could create a sense of wonder and awe in his student. He was bored in classrooms and detested the formal school education he received.

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Albert Einstein

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." -Albert Einstein

"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year." - Albert Einstein

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” - Albert Einstein

"Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs."

- Albert Einstein

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.” - Albert Einstein

"To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject."

- Albert Einstein

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

- Albert Einstein

“According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.” - Albert Einstein

WisdomEinstein possessed one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. He brought his great mind to bear not only on science but offered pearls of wisdom on almost everything under the sun. His words reveal a mind which has pondered deeply on the lot of fellow human beings. Einstein was gifted with a natural flair for words. He has been extensively quoted and many of his opinions are relevant even today.

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem -- in my opinion -- to characterize our age.” -Albert Einstein

“The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.” - Albert Einstein

“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” - Albert Einstein

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” - Albert Einstein

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein

“Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.” - Albert Einstein

“The environment is everything that isn't me.” - Albert Einstein

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” - Albert Einstein

“The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” - Albert Einstein

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” - Albert Einstein

“The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule...” - Albert Einstein

“Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.” - Albert Einstein

“Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.” - Albert Einstein

“Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation.” - Albert Einstein

“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.” - Albert Einstein

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” - Albert Einstein

“In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”

- Albert Einstein

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” - Albert Einstein

Funny QuotesEven while delving into profound scientific research Einstein displayed his sense of playful humor. A great creative mind, he had the ability to see into the funny side of things. He had a sharp wit which surfaces frequently in his writings, letters and speeches.

“Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love” - Albert Einstein

“To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.” - Albert Einstein

“It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it. (referring to clothing)” - Albert Einstein

“I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus.” - Albert Einstein

“How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love” - Albert Einstein

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity”

- Albert Einstein

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

- Albert Einstein

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." - Albert Einstein

“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor” - Albert Einstein

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe” - Albert Einstein

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves” - Albert Einstein

“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.”

-Albert Einstein

SocietyAlbert Einstein was one of the most influential personalities of the twentieth century. His opinion was sought on all possible topics and he freely gave them. He often voiced his concern over the underdog like the blacks in America and was a strong opponent of racial discrimination. His vision of an ideal society was a utopian world where human beings lived together in peace and harmony and lend a helping hand to each other.

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” - Albert Einstein

“At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on.” - Albert Einstein

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.” - Albert Einstein

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” - Albert Einstein

“Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.” - Albert Einstein

“Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.” - Albert Einstein

“The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.”

- Albert Einstein

"Bias against the Negro is the worst disease from which the society of our nation suffers." - Albert Einstein

PersonalEinstein was not only one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century but a unique personality. He was a free thinker who held unconventional views on most subjects. Though he was considered a towering genius, he remained humble and felt he had no special talents only an inquisitive mind. He led a simple life with a limited wardrobe as he did not want to waste time deciding on what to wear. To him good clothes were superfluous and fashions a waste of time and energy. He was also an extremely humane man with a deep compassion for the suffering of mankind. He had a wandering mind which while pondering over great matters, lost track of mundane things in everyday life. He was extremely disorganized in his personal life.

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received.” - Albert Einstein

“Why is it that nobody understands me and everybody likes me” - Albert Einstein

“I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.” - Albert Einstein

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” - Albert Einstein

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.” - Albert Einstein

“There has already been published by the bucketfuls such brazen lies and utter fictions about me that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had let myself pay attention to that.”

- Albert Einstein

“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence - these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars that I belong to it.” - Albert Einstein

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

- Albert Einstein

“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.” - Albert Einstein

“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.” - Albert Einstein

“How do I work? I grope.” - Albert Einstein

“My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born and that is all that is necessary.” - Albert Einstein

“If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.” - Albert Einstein

“My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe.” - Albert Einstein

“I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.”

- Albert Einstein

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”

- Albert Einstein

“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.”

- Albert Einstein

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”

- Albert Einstein

“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist.” - Albert Einstein

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”

- Albert Einstein

“I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.” - Albert Einstein

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” - Albert Einstein

“You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one.” - Albert Einstein

Einstein’s Historic SpeechesAlbert Einstein, 1918 Principles of Research Speech rendered to the Physical Society Berlin

This speech was given in honor of Max Plank’s sixtieth birthday. He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of twentieth century physics. He is credited to be the founder of quantum theory. In this famous speech Einstein dwells not only on Science but also on his philosophy. This speech also reveals Einstein’s command over language. The words have a lyrical quality about them. To him a scientist’s devotion to his work is like a lover paying homage to his beloved.

Full Transcript:

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who has offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.

I am quite aware that we have just now lightheartedly expelled in imagination many excellent men who are largely, perhaps chiefly, responsible for the buildings of the temple of science; and in many cases our angel would find it a pretty ticklish job to decide. But of one thing I feel sure: if the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have come to be, any more than a forest can grow which consists of nothing but creepers. For these people any sphere of human activity will do, if it comes to a point; whether they become engineers, officers, tradesmen, or scientists depends on circumstances. Now let us have another look at those who have found favor with the angel. Most of them are somewhat odd, uncommunicative, solitary fellows, really less like each other, in spite of these common characteristics, than the hosts of the rejected. What has brought them to the temple? That is a difficult question and no single answer will cover it. To begin with, I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that leads men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.

With this negative motive there goes a positive one. Man tries to make for himself in the fashion that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fashion. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.

What place does the theoretical physicist's picture of the world occupy among all these possible pictures? It demands the highest possible standard of rigorous precision in the description of relations, such as only the use of mathematical language can give. In regard to his subject matter, on the other hand, the physicist has to limit himself very severely: he must content himself with describing the most simple events which can be brought within the domain of our experience; all events of a more complex order are beyond the power of the human intellect to reconstruct with the subtle accuracy and logical perfection which the theoretical physicist demands. Supreme purity, clarity, and certainty at the cost of completeness. But what can be the attraction of getting to know such a tiny section of nature thoroughly, while one leaves everything subtler and more complex shyly and timidly alone? Does the product of such a modest effort deserve to be called by the proud name of a theory of the universe?

In my belief the name is justified; for the general laws on which the structure of theoretical physics is based claim to be valid for any natural phenomenon whatsoever. With them, it ought to be possible to arrive at the description, that is to say, the theory, of every natural process, including life, by means of pure deduction, if that process of deduction were not far beyond the capacity of the human intellect. The physicist's renunciation of completeness for his cosmos is therefore not a matter of fundamental principle.

The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition, resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. In this methodological uncertainty, one might suppose that there were any number of possible systems of theoretical physics all equally well justified; and this opinion is no doubt correct, theoretically. But the development of physics has shown that at any given moment, out of all conceivable constructions, a single one has always proved itself decidedly superior to all the rest. Nobody who has really gone deeply into the matter will deny that in practice the world of phenomena uniquely determines the theoretical system, in spite of the fact that there is no logical bridge between phenomena and their theoretical principles; this is what Leibnitz described so happily as a "pre-established harmony." Physicists often accuse epistemologists of not paying sufficient attention to this fact. Here, it seems to me, lie the roots of the controversy carried on some years ago between Mach and Planck.

The longing to behold this pre-established harmony is the source of the inexhaustible patience and perseverance with which Planck has devoted himself, as we see, to the most general problems of our science, refusing to let himself be diverted to more grateful and more easily attained ends. I have often heard colleagues try to attribute this attitude of his to extraordinary will-power and discipline -- wrongly, in my opinion. The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart. There he sits, our beloved Planck, and smiles inside himself at my childish playing-about with the lantern of Diogenes. Our affection for him needs no threadbare explanation. May the love of science continue to illumine his path in the future and lead him to the solution of the most important problem in present-day physics, which he has himself posed and done so much to solve. May he succeed in uniting quantum theory with electrodynamics and mechanics in a single logical system.

Albert Einstein, 1932

Speech delivered to the German League of Human Rights in Berlin

Einstein was not moved by science alone although it was the ruling passion of his life. He was also greatly concerned about basic human rights which he felt should be enjoyed by every human being on earth. Einstein was a staunch pacifist. He abhorred violence and war. He even disliked the spirit of nationalism and patriotism which often led to mindless slaughter. This speech contains some of his most famous quotes and also reflects his views on social justice, pacifism and religion.

Full Transcript:

Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore. In our daily lives we only feel that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own. I am often worried at the thought that my life is based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings and I am aware of my great indebtedness to them.

I do not believe in freedom of the will. Schopenhauer's words: “Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills” accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of freedom of will preserves me from taking too seriously myself and my fellow men as acting and deciding individuals and from losing my temper.

I never coveted affluence and luxury and even despise them a good deal.

My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely necessary. I always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship.

All these motives made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.

I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the weaknesses of the democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual appeared to me always as the important communal aims of the state.

Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated.

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and

sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.

In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.

Albert Einstein as AuthorThe World as I see it

The World as I See It is one of the most comprehensive collections of essays, articles and letters written by Albert Einstein. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest scientists that the world has ever produced but in this book we get a glimpse of a different side of his personality. Albert Einstein was a radical free thinker who took a keen interest in the affairs of the world. This book provides an insight into Einstein’s philosophy of life and his concept of metaphysics. We also see the deeply humanitarian side of the man who believed that the world would be a better place if we help each other. Living in turbulent times which saw the world ravaged by two world wars, he advocated peace and pacifism.

The book can be divided into four parts. The World AS I See It, Politics and Pacifism, Germany and the Jews. Einstein’s prose is clear and flowing and reflects simplicity of thought. It is a wonderful book written by a brilliant mind

From the book:When we survey our lives and endeavors we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave. - Albert Einstein

Out of My Later Years

As the title suggests this book covers the later years of Einstein’s life spanning from 1934-1950. It contains one of the best collections of essays, letters and speeches and gives us a peep into the world of a brilliant mind. This book opens a window into the life of the great man and gives us his views on as varied topics as education, religious and social issues besides science. The book has sections on 'Convictions and Beliefs' 'Science and Life' ' Public Affairs' ' Personalities' and 'His own people: The Jews" In Personalities, he writes about various scientists and great leaders of his day like Gandhi, Newton, Kepler, Planck, Madame Curie, Langevin, and lesser known figures Paul Ehrenfest,Carl von Ossietsky. “The Jews” deals with the creation of a national homeland for the Jews and Zionism. The book also visualizes his concept of a global village. He writes with pathos, the history of his homeland Germany as it witnessed the rise of Hitler and the birth of anti- Semitism.

From the book:We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the higher animals. We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We all are ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self-preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self-preservation. At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are the springs of man's actions. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us. - Albert Einstein

Relativity: The special and general theory

This book presents an opportunity to students of science to learn all about relativity from the twentieth century genius. This book explains the theories of relativity which catapulted him to world fame. It is full of examples and contains a certain amount of mathematics though these are not difficult to comprehend. Elucidating on the objective of the book Einstein wrote” The present book is intended," Einstein wrote in 1916, "as far as possible, to give an exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but who are not conversant with the mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics.... In the interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I should repeat myself frequently, without paying the slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler." Compared to other books on the same topic Einstein’s book is relatively easy to understand. Throughout the book there is clarity of thought and language. This book is meant for science students as a certain amount of knowledge of Physics is essential to comprehend the book. Though this book was published way back in 1920, students of science will find it useful even today. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with Special theory of relativity, the second with general theory of relativity and the third with Considerations of the Universe as a whole.

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The figure of Albert Einstein dominates the twentieth century. He has been declared Times’ Person of the Century. One of the greatest scientists the world has ever produced, his name has become a symbol for genius. Gifted with an extraordinary mind he solved the riddles of some of the deepest secrets of the universe and gave us the theory of relativity as well as the most famous equation of Physics E=MC2. The most important discoveries of Physics including the quantum theory, Big Bang and the making of the atom bomb have his stamp. This book gives you a glimpse of the man behind the scientist. Besides being a brilliant scientist who won the Nobel Prize, he was a great humanitarian, a philosopher who contemplated on the affairs of human beings and a pacifist in an era of world wars. This extraordinary man spurned power when he was offered the Presidentship of Israel. A simple man who did away with

superfluous things and liked to greet his guests wearing an old sweater and slippers his figure dominated an age devastated by two world wars and his opinion was sought on almost every topic under the sun. No other scientist in the world had been more idolized and been at the receiving end of so much attention.

Journalists noted down each word he uttered and he is also one of the most quoted men of the century gone by.

“I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details” - Albert Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new” - Albert Einstein

“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” - Albert Einstein

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

- Albert Einstein