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"When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe,
he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved.
I was lucky enough to have spotted it."
"I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive."
"It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer ."
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.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber."
"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."
"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."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.
The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully,
have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. ~Albert Einstein, "What I Believe," Forum and Century, 1930
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others ."
"I want to know God's thoughts,..... the rest are details.."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
"Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within."
"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."
"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue."
"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."
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On The Universe
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible."
""A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited
in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his
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. Our
task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its
beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such
achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner
security", 1950
"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."
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On Education
"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."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty ."
"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value."
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
"The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play
and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society.
Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province."
"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."
"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life.
The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds.
"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."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only source of knowledge is experience"
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly
submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
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On Life
"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."
"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."
"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."
"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy."
"Only a life lived for others is a life worth while ."
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love"
"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why".
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"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."
"(1) Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labour of all.
(2) The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indespensible precondition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself is not enough. In order to be content men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accord with their personal characteristics and abilities."
Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."
"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."
How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love"
"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."
"...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."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
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On Religion
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man."
"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."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."
"The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as
well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and
make its tool of them."
[Albert Einstein, letter to Sigmund Freud, 30 July 1932]
"True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and
righteousness."
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
"The most important function of art and science is to
Awaken the cosmic religious feeling and keep it alive."
"I maintain that cosmic religiousness is the strongest and most noble driving force of scientific
research."
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose
purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human
frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble
souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."
[Albert Einstein, obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955]
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience,
which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be
Buddhism...."
"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 highest principles for our aspirations and judgements are given to us in the
Jewish-Christian religious tradition. It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we
can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspir ations and
valuations. If one were to take that goal out of out of its religious form and look merely at its
purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible development of the
individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind. ... it
is only to the individual that a soul is given. And the high destiny of the individual is to serve
rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any otherway."
"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws
of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist
will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish
addressed to a Supernatural Being."
[Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who wrote and asked if scientists pray. Source:
"Albert Einstein: The Human Side", Edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties
and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be
restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930]
"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."
"Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. If one asks the
whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justifed
merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions,
which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgements of the individuals; they are there,
that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence.
They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the
medium of powerful personalities. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense
their nature simply and clearly."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
"It is only to the individual that a soul is given."
"In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein
and the motives that have led them hither. 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
have 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"
"In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep
oneself."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are
directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and
leading the individual towards freedom."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties
and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be
restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930]
"The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the
so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and
confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory
impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of
meaning."
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being
systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but
have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the
unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
[Albert Einstein, 1954, from "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and
Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press]
"I am convinced that some political and social activities and practices of the Catholic
organizations are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole, here and
everywhere. I mention here only the fight against birth control at a time when overpopulation
in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to
any attempt to organize peace on this planet." [ letter, 1954]
"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."
"What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very
imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a
genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism"
"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all
art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of
wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenatrable for
us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose
gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is
the core of the true religious sent iment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself
amoung profoundly religious men."
"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."
"Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking
cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental
ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the i ndividual, seems to me
precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are
directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and
leading the individual towards freedom."
"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his
conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a
different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an
independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering
with the natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine
can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able
to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behaviour on the part of the representatives of
religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain
itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with
incalculable harm to human progress .... If it is one of the goals of religions to liberate
maknind as far as possible from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears, s
cientific reasoning can aid religion in another sense. Although it is true that it is the goal of
science to discover (the) rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not
its only aim. It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible number
of mutually independent conceptual elements. It is in this striving after the rational
unification of the manifold that it encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely
this attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to illusion. But whoever
has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in this domain, is moved by
the profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence. By way of the
understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes
and desires, and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason,
incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man. This
attitude, however, appears to me to be religious in the highest sense of the word. And so it
seems to me that science not only purifies the religious imulse of the dross of its
anthropomorphism but also contibutes to a religious spiritualisation of our understanding of
life."
[Albert Einstein, "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]
"I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe." or sometimes quoted
as "God does not play dice with the universe."
"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, b een placed in doubt by modern
science. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] My
religiosity consists in a humble admiratation of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself
in the little that we, with our we ak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.
Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God."
[Albert Einstein, from "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh
Hoffman, Princeton University Press]
"If the possibility of the spiritual development of all individuals is to be secured, a second kind of outward freedom is necessary. The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in general requires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterised as inward freedom. It is this freedom of the spirit which consists in the interdependence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general. This inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy object for the individual."
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
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On War and Peace
"An empty stomach is not a good political advisor."
"Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.".. Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934
"We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. ~Albert Einstein, "Atomic War or Peace," Atlantic Monthly, November 1945
Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative.
"Why does this applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little
happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it."
"The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind
any more than did the discovery of matches. We only must do everything in our power to
safeguard against its abuse. Only a supranational organization, equipped with a sufficiently
strong executive power, can protect us." (1953)
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch
of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"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 suffice. This
disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless
brutality, deplorable love-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."
A Prayer for Understanding
Oh, great Father, never let me judge another man until
I have walked in his moccasins for two weeks.
Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be kept by understanding.
"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
"Mankind's desire for peace can be realized
only by the creation of a world government."
"Every thoughtful, well-meaning and conscientious human being
should assume in time of peace,
the solemn and unconditional obligation
not to participate in any war, for any reason
or to lend support of any kind, whether direct or indirect."
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything
save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should be. It many intimidate the human race into bringing order into it's international affairs, which without the pressure of fear, it would not do."
"But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man; as a result, intelligent, objective and humane thinking has hardly any effect and is even suspected and persecuted as unpatriotic." ..Einstein "The Menace of Mass Destruction"
"In our time the military mentality is still more dangerous than formerly because the offensive weapons have become much more powerful than the defensive ones. Therefore, it leads, by necessity, to preventive war. The general insecurity that goes hand in hand with this results in the sacrifice of the citizen's civil rights to the supposed welfare of the state. Political witch-hunting, controls of all sorts (e.g., control of teaching and research, of the press, and so forth) appear inevitable, and for this reason do not encounter that popular resistance, which, were it not for the military mentality, would provide protection. A reappraisal of all values gradually takes place insofar as everything that does not clearly serve the utopian ends is regarded and treated as inferior."...Einstein "The Military Mentality"
"Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that
tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels."
As long as armies exist, any serious conflict will lead to war.
It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts, are considered as unimportant and secondary.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
To concentrate on the problems and aspirations which all thinking men share creates a sense of comradeship that is eventually bound to reunite scholars and artists of all nations.
Warfare cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished.
"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."
A large part of history is replete with the struggle for human rights, an eternal struggle in which final vistory can never be won. But to tire in that struggle would mean the ruin of society.
Only understanding for our neighbors, justice in our dealings, and willingness to help our fellow men can give human society permanence and assure security for the individual.
We scientists, whose tragic destination has been to help in making the methods of annihilation 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. What task could possibly be more important to us? What social aim could be closer to our hearts?
Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisable piper
. .. Einstein, in The Saturday Evening Post, 26 October 1929
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
"Nor do I take into account a danger of starting a chain reaction of a scope great enough to
destroy part or all of the planet...But it is not necessary to imagine the earth being destroyed like a nova by a stellar explosion to understand vividly the grow ing scope of atomic war and to recognize that unless another war is prevented it is likely to bring destruction on a scale never before held possible, and even now hardly conceived, and that little civilization would survive it." (1947)
"The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man."
"Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the
name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
"One does not make wars less likely by formulationg rules of warfare...
war cannot be humanized. It can only be eliminated..."
http://www.whatsbetter.com/static/images/11726.jpg
"When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of the globe,
he doesn't realize that the track he has covered is curved.
I was lucky enough to have spotted it."
"I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive."
"It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer ."
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.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a plumber."
"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."
"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."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - such an ethical basis I call more proper for a herd of swine.
The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully,
have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. ~Albert Einstein, "What I Believe," Forum and Century, 1930
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others ."
"I want to know God's thoughts,..... the rest are details.."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
"Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within."
"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."
"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue."
"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."
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On The Universe
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible."
""A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited
in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his
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. Our
task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its
beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such
achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner
security", 1950
"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."
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On Education
"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."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty ."
"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value."
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
"The point is to develop the childlike inclination for play
and the childlike desire for recognition and to guide the child over to important fields for society.
Such a school demands from the teacher that he be a kind of artist in his province."
"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."
"One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life.
The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value of the result to the community."
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds.
"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."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only source of knowledge is experience"
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly
submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
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On Life
"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."
"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."
"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."
"A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy."
"Only a life lived for others is a life worth while ."
"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love"
"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why".
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"If A equals success, then the formula is: A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut."
"Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age."
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"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."
"(1) Those instrumental goods which should serve to maintain the life and health of all human beings should be produced by the least possible labour of all.
(2) The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indespensible precondition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself is not enough. In order to be content men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accord with their personal characteristics and abilities."
Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."
"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."
How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
"Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love"
"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."
"...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."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
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On Religion
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
"Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man."
"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."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."
"The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as
well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and
make its tool of them."
[Albert Einstein, letter to Sigmund Freud, 30 July 1932]
"True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and
righteousness."
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
"The most important function of art and science is to
Awaken the cosmic religious feeling and keep it alive."
"I maintain that cosmic religiousness is the strongest and most noble driving force of scientific
research."
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose
purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human
frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble
souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms."
[Albert Einstein, obituary in New York Times, 19 April 1955]
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience,
which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be
Buddhism...."
"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 highest principles for our aspirations and judgements are given to us in the
Jewish-Christian religious tradition. It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we
can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspir ations and
valuations. If one were to take that goal out of out of its religious form and look merely at its
purely human side, one might state it perhaps thus: free and responsible development of the
individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind. ... it
is only to the individual that a soul is given. And the high destiny of the individual is to serve
rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any otherway."
"Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws
of nature, and therefore this holds for the action of people. For this reason, a research scientist
will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish
addressed to a Supernatural Being."
[Albert Einstein, 1936, responding to a child who wrote and asked if scientists pray. Source:
"Albert Einstein: The Human Side", Edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties
and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be
restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930]
"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."
"Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. If one asks the
whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justifed
merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions,
which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgements of the individuals; they are there,
that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence.
They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the
medium of powerful personalities. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense
their nature simply and clearly."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is
shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
"It is only to the individual that a soul is given."
"In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein
and the motives that have led them hither. 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
have 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"
"In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep
oneself."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are
directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and
leading the individual towards freedom."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties
and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be
restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
[Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science", New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930]
"The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the
so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and
confusion. Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions, and combinations of sensory
impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seem to me to be empty and devoid of
meaning."
"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being
systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but
have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the
unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
[Albert Einstein, 1954, from "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and
Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press]
"I am convinced that some political and social activities and practices of the Catholic
organizations are detrimental and even dangerous for the community as a whole, here and
everywhere. I mention here only the fight against birth control at a time when overpopulation
in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and a grave obstacle to
any attempt to organize peace on this planet." [ letter, 1954]
"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."
"What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very
imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a
genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism"
"The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all
art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of
wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenatrable for
us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose
gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is
the core of the true religious sent iment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself
amoung profoundly religious men."
"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."
"Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends. But mere thinking
cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental
ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the i ndividual, seems to me
precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man."
"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are
directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and
leading the individual towards freedom."
"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his
conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a
different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an
independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering
with the natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine
can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able
to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behaviour on the part of the representatives of
religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain
itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with
incalculable harm to human progress .... If it is one of the goals of religions to liberate
maknind as far as possible from the bondage of egocentric cravings, desires, and fears, s
cientific reasoning can aid religion in another sense. Although it is true that it is the goal of
science to discover (the) rules which permit the association and foretelling of facts, this is not
its only aim. It also seeks to reduce the connections discovered to the smallest possible number
of mutually independent conceptual elements. It is in this striving after the rational
unification of the manifold that it encounters its greatest successes, even though it is precisely
this attempt which causes it to run the greatest risk of falling a prey to illusion. But whoever
has undergone the intense experience of successful advances made in this domain, is moved by
the profound reverence for the rationality made manifest in existence. By way of the
understanding he achieves a far reaching emancipation from the shackles of personal hopes
and desires, and thereby attains that humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason,
incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths, is inaccessible to man. This
attitude, however, appears to me to be religious in the highest sense of the word. And so it
seems to me that science not only purifies the religious imulse of the dross of its
anthropomorphism but also contibutes to a religious spiritualisation of our understanding of
life."
[Albert Einstein, "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]
"I cannot believe that God would choose to play dice with the universe." or sometimes quoted
as "God does not play dice with the universe."
"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, b een placed in doubt by modern
science. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] My
religiosity consists in a humble admiratation of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself
in the little that we, with our we ak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.
Morality is of the highest importance -- but for us, not for God."
[Albert Einstein, from "Albert Einstein: The Human Side", edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh
Hoffman, Princeton University Press]
"If the possibility of the spiritual development of all individuals is to be secured, a second kind of outward freedom is necessary. The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit in general requires still another kind of freedom, which may be characterised as inward freedom. It is this freedom of the spirit which consists in the interdependence of thought from the restrictions of authoritarian and social prejudices as well as from unphilosophical routinizing and habit in general. This inward freedom is an infrequent gift of nature and a worthy object for the individual."
"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
To Top
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On War and Peace
"An empty stomach is not a good political advisor."
"Nationalism is an infantile sickness. It is the measles of the human race.".. Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934
"We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."
The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. ~Albert Einstein, "Atomic War or Peace," Atlantic Monthly, November 1945
Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative.
"Why does this applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little
happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it."
"The discovery of nuclear chain reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind
any more than did the discovery of matches. We only must do everything in our power to
safeguard against its abuse. Only a supranational organization, equipped with a sufficiently
strong executive power, can protect us." (1953)
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch
of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"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 suffice. This
disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless
brutality, deplorable love-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."
A Prayer for Understanding
Oh, great Father, never let me judge another man until
I have walked in his moccasins for two weeks.
Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be kept by understanding.
"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
"Mankind's desire for peace can be realized
only by the creation of a world government."
"Every thoughtful, well-meaning and conscientious human being
should assume in time of peace,
the solemn and unconditional obligation
not to participate in any war, for any reason
or to lend support of any kind, whether direct or indirect."
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything
save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace. Perhaps it is well that it should be. It many intimidate the human race into bringing order into it's international affairs, which without the pressure of fear, it would not do."
"But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man; as a result, intelligent, objective and humane thinking has hardly any effect and is even suspected and persecuted as unpatriotic." ..Einstein "The Menace of Mass Destruction"
"In our time the military mentality is still more dangerous than formerly because the offensive weapons have become much more powerful than the defensive ones. Therefore, it leads, by necessity, to preventive war. The general insecurity that goes hand in hand with this results in the sacrifice of the citizen's civil rights to the supposed welfare of the state. Political witch-hunting, controls of all sorts (e.g., control of teaching and research, of the press, and so forth) appear inevitable, and for this reason do not encounter that popular resistance, which, were it not for the military mentality, would provide protection. A reappraisal of all values gradually takes place insofar as everything that does not clearly serve the utopian ends is regarded and treated as inferior."...Einstein "The Military Mentality"
"Force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that
tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels."
As long as armies exist, any serious conflict will lead to war.
It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts, are considered as unimportant and secondary.
You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
To concentrate on the problems and aspirations which all thinking men share creates a sense of comradeship that is eventually bound to reunite scholars and artists of all nations.
Warfare cannot be humanized. It can only be abolished.
"The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."
A large part of history is replete with the struggle for human rights, an eternal struggle in which final vistory can never be won. But to tire in that struggle would mean the ruin of society.
Only understanding for our neighbors, justice in our dealings, and willingness to help our fellow men can give human society permanence and assure security for the individual.
We scientists, whose tragic destination has been to help in making the methods of annihilation 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. What task could possibly be more important to us? What social aim could be closer to our hearts?
Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisable piper
. .. Einstein, in The Saturday Evening Post, 26 October 1929
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
"Nor do I take into account a danger of starting a chain reaction of a scope great enough to
destroy part or all of the planet...But it is not necessary to imagine the earth being destroyed like a nova by a stellar explosion to understand vividly the grow ing scope of atomic war and to recognize that unless another war is prevented it is likely to bring destruction on a scale never before held possible, and even now hardly conceived, and that little civilization would survive it." (1947)
"The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man."
"Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perpetually rejuvenated illusions."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the
name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
"One does not make wars less likely by formulationg rules of warfare...
war cannot be humanized. It can only be eliminated..."
