Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alice Calaprice is a renowned expert on Albert Einstein and was a longtime senior editor at Princeton University Press. She has worked with the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein since the founding of the project, has copyedited and overseen the production of all the volumes, and administered the accompanying translation series with a grant from the National Science Foundation. She is the author of several popular books on Einstein and was a recipient of the Literary Market Place's award for individual achievement in scholarly editing.

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The Ultimate Quotable Einstein

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

FOREWORD, BY FREEMAN DYSON.................................................IXA (LONG) NOTE ABOUT THIS FINAL EDITION.....................................XVIIA BRIEF CHRONOLOGY.........................................................XXVOn Einstein Himself........................................................1On and to His Family.......................................................29On Aging...................................................................53On America and Americans...................................................61On and to Children.........................................................75On Death...................................................................89On Education, Students, and Academic Freedom...............................97On and to Friends, Specific Scientists, and Others.........................111On Germans and Germany.....................................................159On Humankind...............................................................171On Jews, Israel, Judaism, and Zionism......................................191On Life....................................................................227On Music...................................................................233On Pacifism, Disarmament, and World Government.............................243On Peace, War, the Bomb, and the Military..................................261On Politics, Patriotism, and Government....................................287On Race and Prejudice......................................................309On Religion, God, and Philosophy...........................................319On Science and Scientists, Mathematics, and Technology.....................347On Miscellaneous Subjects..................................................411Einstein's Verses: A Small Selection.......................................461Attributed to Einstein.....................................................471Others on Einstein.........................................................487BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................547INDEX OF KEY WORDS.........................................................557SUBJECT INDEX..............................................................563

Chapter One

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to think too much about the future.

Written at age seventeen (September 18, 1896) for a school essay in French entitled "My Future Plans." CPAE, Vol. 1, Doc. 22

Strenuous intellectual work and the study of God's Nature are the angels that will lead me through all the troubles of this life with consolation, strength, and uncompromising rigor.

To Pauline Winteler, mother of Einstein's girlfriend Marie, May (?) 1897. CPAE, Vol. 1, Doc. 34

*In many a lucid moment I appear to myself as an ostrich who buries his head in the desert sand so as not to perceive a danger. One creates a small world for oneself and ... one feels miraculously great and important, just like a mole in its self-dug hole.

Ibid.

*I know this sort of animal personally, from my own experience, as I am one of them myself. Not too much should be expected of them.... Today we are sullen, tomorrow high-spirited, after tomorrow cold, then again irritated and half-sick of life—not to mention unfaithfulness, ingratitude, and selfishness.

To friend Julia Niggli, ca. August 6, 1899, after she asked him his opinion about her relationship with an older man. CPAE, Vol. 1, Doc. 51

I decided the following about our future: I will look for a position immediately, no matter how modest it is. My scientific goals and my personal vanity will not prevent me from accepting even the most subordinate position.

To future wife Mileva Maric, ca. July 7, 1901, while having difficulty finding his first job. CPAE, Vol. 1, Doc. 114

In living through this "great epoch," it is difficult to reconcile oneself to the fact that one belongs to that mad, degenerate species that boasts of its free will. How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of good will! In such a place even I should be an ardent patriot!

To Paul Ehrenfest, early December 1914. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc. 39

Do not feel sorry for me. Despite terrible appearances, my life goes on in full harmony; I am entirely devoted to reflection. I resemble a farsighted man who is charmed by the vast horizon and who is disturbed by the foreground only when an opaque object obstructs his view.

To Helene Savic, September 8, 1916, after separation from his family. In Popovic, ed., In Albert's Shadow, 110. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc. 258

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

From a conversation with psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1916. In Wertheimer, Productive Thinking (New York: Harper, 1945), footnote on p. 184

I have come to know the mutability of all human relationships and have learned to insulate myself against both heat and cold so that a temperature balance is fairly well assured.

To Heinrich Zangger, March 10, 1917. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc. 309

I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by disposition a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.

To Adolf Kneser, June 7, 1918. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc. 560

I was originally supposed to become an engineer, but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.

To Heinrich Zangger, ca. August 1918. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc. 597

I lack any sentiment of the sort; all I have is a sense of duty toward all people and an attachment to those with whom I have become intimate.

To Heinrich Zangger, June 1, 1919, regarding his lack of attachment to any particular place, as, for example, physicist Max Planck had to Germany. CPAE, Vol. 9, Doc. 52

I also had little inclination for history [in school]. But I think it had more to do with the method of instruction than with the subject itself.

To sons Hans Albert and Eduard, June 13, 1919. CPAE, Vol. 9, Doc. 60

I have not yet eaten enough of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, though in my profession I am obliged to feed on it regularly.

To Max Born, November 9, 1919. In Born, Born-Einstein Letters, 16; CPAE, Vol. 9, Doc. 162

By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be represented as a bête noire, the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!

To The Times (London), November 28, 1919, 13–14, written at the request of the newspaper. Also referred to in a letter to Paul Ehrenfest, December 4, 1919. See also the quotation of April 6, 1922, below. CPAE, Vol. 7, Doc. 26

Another funny thing is that I myself count everywhere as a Bolshevist, God knows why; perhaps because I do not take all that slop in the Berliner Tageblatt as milk and honey.

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