Albert Einstein
Special and general theories of relativity of German-born American theoretical physicist Albert Einstein revolutionized modern thought on the nature of space and time and formed a base for the exploitation of atomic energy; he won a Nobel Prize of 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.
His paper of 1905 formed the basis of electronics. His first paper, also published in 1905, changed the world.
He completed his Philosophiae Doctor at the University of Zurich before 1909.
Einstein, a pacifist during World War I, stayed a firm proponent of social justice and responsibility.
Einstein thought that Newtonion mechanics no longer enough reconciled the laws of classical mechanics with those of the electromagnetic field. This thought led to the development. He recognized, however, that he ably also extended the principle to gravitational fields and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916 published a paper. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and the motion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light, which laid the foundation of the photon.
Best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, dubbed "the world's most famous equation," he received "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.
He visited the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and went not back to Germany. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter, alerting Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president, to the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" and recommending that the United States begin similar research. This recommendation eventually led to the Manhattan project. Einstein supported defending the Allied forces but largely denounced the idea of using the newly discovered nuclear fission as a weapon. Later, with Bertrand Russell–Einstein manifesto highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons.
After the rise of the Nazi party, Einstein made Princeton his permanent home as a citizen of United States in 1940. He chaired the emergency committee of atomic scientists, which organized to alert the public to the dangers of warfare.
At a symposium, he advised:
"In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task... "
("Science, Philosophy and Religion, A Symposium," published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941).
In a letter to philosopher Eric Gutkind, dated 3 January 1954, Einstein stated:
"The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."
(The Guardian, "Childish superstition: Einstein's letter makes view of religion relatively clear," by James Randerson, May 13, 2008)
Great intellectual achievements and originality made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.
The institute for advanced study in Princeton, New Jersey, affiliated Einstein until his death in 1955.
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“Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”
“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.”
“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them”
“If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.”
“Failing isn't bad when you learn what not to do.”
“Numerous are the academic chairs, but rare are wise and noble teachers. Numerous and large are the lecture halls, but far from numerous the young people who genuinely thirst for truth and justice. Numerous are the wares that nature produces by the dozen, but her choice products are few.We all know that, so why complain? Was it not always thus and will it not always thus remain? Certainly, and one must take what nature gives as one finds it. But there is also such a thing as a spirit of the times, an attitude of mind characteristic of a particular generation, which is passed on from individual to individual and gives its distinctive mark to a society. Each of us has to his little bit toward transforming this spirit of the times.”
“That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.”
“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.”
“Always do what's right; this will gratify some and astonish the rest”
“Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us.”
“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”
“We must be prepared to make the same heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war.”
“We experience ourselves our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.”
“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. (said of Mahatma Gandhi)”
“Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God.”
“I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense... Schopenhauer’s saying, ‘A man can do what he wants, but not will what he wants,’ has been a very real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance. This realization mercifully mitigates the easily paralyzing sense of responsibility and prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously; it is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due.”
“Um ein tadelloses Mitglied einer Schafherde sein zu können, muß man vor allem ein Schaf sein.”
“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”
“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… ”
“From discord, find Harmony.”
“The environment is everything that isn't me.”
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
“The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.”
“satu-satunya yang pasti adalah ketidakpastian ”
“Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
“The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
“Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.”
“The theory must not contradict empirical facts,”
“The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a simple datum of experience.”
“As the area of light expands, so does the perimeter of darkness.”
“Success = 1 part work + 1 part play + 1 part keep your mouth shut”
“Student: Dr. Einstein, Aren't these the same questions as last year's [physics] final exam?Dr. Einstein: Yes; But this year the answers are different.”
“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
“Een probleem is onoplosbaar binnen de context van het probleem.”
“Intelligence is not the ability to store information, but to know where to find it.”
“Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.”
“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.”
“Excellence is doing a common thing in an uncommon way.”
“Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.”
“I maintain that the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research.”
“How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.”
“The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.”
“Common to all these types is the anthropomorphic character of their conception of God. In general, only individuals of exceptional endowments, and exceptionally high-minded communities, rise to any considerable extent above this level. But there is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.”
“I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature.”
“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.”
“But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people--first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.”
“Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.”
“I think and think for months and years, ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”
“People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.”
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”