========================================================================== There's a wonderful family named Stein, There's Ep, there's Gert, and there's Ein. Ep's statues are junk, Gert's poems are bunk, And nobody understands Ein. ========================================================================== "Gravitation can not be held resposible for people falling in love" "Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science" "Watch the stars, and from them learn. To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track, without a sound, forever tracing Newton's ground." --Albert Einstein, translation by Dave Fredrick "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler." When asked how World War III would be fought, Einstein replied that he didn't know. But he knew how World War IV would be fought: With sticks and stones! "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." Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing. Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) * Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. _Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium_ (1941) ch. 13 God does not play dice with the universe. Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18. "Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet" Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." - Albert Einstein Einstein was attending a music salon in Germany before the second world war, with the violinist S. Suzuki. Two Japanese women played a German piece of music and a woman in the audience excaimed: "How wonderful! It sounds so German!" Einstein responded: "Madam, people are all the same." Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ... I get most joy in life out of music. ``What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck,'' for the October 26, 1929 issue of _The Saturday Evening Post_. Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) 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. ``What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck,'' for the October 26, 1929 issue of _The Saturday Evening Post_. Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) 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 scientists 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 peace and security which he can not find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience. _Ideas and Opinions_, (Dell, Pinebrook, N.J., 1954). Einstein, Albert (1879-1955) The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Quoted on pg. 289 of _Adventures of a Mathematician_, by S. M. Ulam (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1976). Apparently these words also occur somewhere in _What I Believe_ (1930). "He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully sduffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senceless brutality, deplorable loce-of-country stance, how violently i hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle. -Albert Einstein Strange is our Situation Here Upon Earth Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. When the solution is simple, God is answering. ========================================================================== "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." "The next world war will be fought with stones." "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." "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." "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." "Imagination is more important than knowledge." "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." "If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." ---A. Einstein Einstein also said "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details" (probably one of the few people in history to say this and not be laughed at..) Or set on fire. (Note the absence of smily faces.)