You could find him
"wheeling a baby carriage on the streets of Bern, Switzerland, halting now
and then, unmindful of the traffic around him, to scribble down some
mathematical symbols in a notebook that shared the carriage with his infant
son, also named Albert," The New York Times wrote in its obituary of the
great scientist.
"Out of those symbols
came the most explosive ideas in the age-old strivings of man to fathom the
mystery of his universe," The Times added.
In his lifetime, Einstein
would change the world, describing the workings of reality better than anyone
since Isaac Newton and revealing the capabilities of the atom bomb.
In time, Einstein's name has
become a byword for genius.
Here's the genius, in his own
words.
On authority
"Unthinking respect for
authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
On scope
"Nature shows us only the
tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with
it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge
dimension."
On politics
"I am by heritage a Jew,
by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being,
without any special attachment to any state or national entity
whatsoever."
On certainty
"As far as the laws of
mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are
certain, they do not refer to reality."
On humility
"As a human being, one
has been endowed with just enough intelligence to be able to see clearly how
utterly inadequate that intelligence is when confronted with what exists."
On his growth
"It is true that my
parents were worried because I began to speak fairely late, so that they even
consulted a doctor. I can't say how old I was — but surely not less than
three."
On common sense
"Common sense is nothing
more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind before you reach eighteen."
On success
"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."
On nationalism
"Nationalism is an
infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race."
On mystery
"The most beautiful
experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that
stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and
can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are
dimmed."
On solitude
"My passionate sense of
social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my
pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human
communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my
country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart;
in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need
for solitude ..."
On self-presentation
“If I were to start taking care of my
grooming, I would no longer be my own self ...”
On motivation
"The ideals that have
lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life
cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship
with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the
eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would
have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts — possessions,
outward success, luxury — have always seemed to me contemptible."
On education
“The aim [of education] must be the training
of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the
service to the community their highest life problem.”
On motivation
"Nothing truly valuable
arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love
and devotion towards men and towards objective things."
On learning
"Most teachers waste
their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does
not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil
does know or is capable of knowing."
On thinking
"I very rarely think in
words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express in words
afterwards."
On curiosity
"The important thing is
to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
On work ethic
"The state of mind which
enables a man to do work of this kind ... is akin to that of the religious
worshipper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or
program, but straight from the heart."
On childhood
"The ordinary adult never
gives a thought to space-time problems ... I, on the contrary, developed so
slowly that I did not begin to wonder about space and time until I was an
adult. I then delved more deeply into the problem than any other adult or child
would have done."
On the role of science
"One thing I have learned
in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive
and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have."
On the hustle
"The only way to escape
the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working."
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