Table of Contents

Introduction 3

QuoteBank

Twenty Famous Quotes 8

God 10
Science 12
War and Peace 15
Education and Teaching 17
Wisdom 19
Funny Quotes 21
Society 23
Personal 25

Einstein’s Historic speeches

The Principles of Research 28

German League of Human Rights 30

Albert Einstein as Author

The World as I See It 32

Out of my Later Years 33
Relativity: The Special and General Theory 34

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 Albert Einstein
His Life and Times

Albert Einstein Makes History and Inspires Hope

With his shaggy unruly hair,
unfashionable clothes and
prominent mustache Albert
Einstein could be recognized
a ny wh e r e. H e wa s t h e
quintessential absent minded
professor—a man who would
forget where he kept his car
keys but solved profound
problems of physics. He was a
genius of high order who
changed the way we perceive the
universe with his theories. The
Times has hailed him as Person of
the Century. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921.
One of the most brilliant
scientists and an extraordinary
man he was also deeply
compassionate and wanted to
help his fellow creatures. A man
of letters he has voiced his
opinion on subjects as diverse as
religion and war many of which
are relevant even today.
The beginning
Born in Germany on March 14,
1879. His father Hermann, a
salesman and engineer and his
mother Pauline resided in Ulm
in the kingdom of
Wurttemberg. They were Jews.
The family shifted to Munich in
1880. The family was not an
orthodox Jewish one and young
Albert attended an elementary
catholic school. Though young
Albert experienced difficulties in
speech, he proved to be a brilliant
student. When Albert was only
five years old his father showed
him a pocket compass. Even at
this young age Albert felt that
there was an unseen force which
I am enough of an ar
tist to
draw freely upo
n my
imagination. Imaginat
ion is
more important
than
kn ow le dg e. K no w le dg
e is
limited. Imagination en
circles
the world. Albert Einstein
was guiding the needle. The
compass made an indelible
impression in Albert’s mind.
When he was six his musically
coaxed him to learn violin.

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inclined mother coaxed him to
learn violin. Though he detested
these lessons the teacher
succeeded in developing in him a
love for music. Mozart’s violin
sonatas were one of his favorite.
Albert displayed a scientific bend
of mind from an early age. He
tried his hand at building
mechanical devices. He also
displayed an unusual ability to
handle numbers. When Albert
was only ten a medical student
who was also his friend
introduced him to books on
mathematics and philosophy.
Albert’s sharp mind was quick to
grasp these subjects. By the age of
12 he had mastered Euclidean
geometry. He was a student of a
prestigious school Luitpold
Gymnasium. Einstein however
hated the rules and regulations of
the school which he felt thwarted
creativity and hindered the free
development of thought.
The teens
Albert experienced the first major
change in his life when his family
left Germany to start a new life in
sunny Italy. It was here that he
took the first tentative steps that
would take him to the road of
greatness. He wrote his first
scientific work, "The Investigation
of the State of Aether in
Magnetic Fields". Einstein did not
complete High School. He
decided to apply to ETH Zurich,
the Swiss Federal Institute of
Te c h n o l o g y i n Z ü r i c h ,
Switzerland. As he had not
cleared High School he was
required to pass an entrance
examination. Unfortunately
Einstein failed even though he
secured high marks in
mathematics and physics. Failure
did not deter him. Einstein was
gifted with an extraordinary
mind. When he was only 16, he
conceived a bold experiment in
which he visualized traveling
along a beam of light. He decided
to finish secondary school from
Aarau, Switzerland. At
Switzerland he experienced the
pangs of love when he fell in love
with Marie. The love affair was
doomed to failure. At 17 he
graduated from High School and
finally secured admission in ETH.
Switzerland polished his natural
abilities. He had followed his
father’s advice and renounced his
German citizenship. In 1896,
Einstein came into contact with
his future wife Mileva Marić. She
was his fellow student and had the
honor of being the only student
of her sex to study mathematics
in ETH. In 1900 Einstein
secured a degree in physics. In the
same year one of Einstein’s
friends introduced him to the
works of Ernst Mach which was
to have a major influence in his
life. The very next year, Einstein
published a paper in the
prestigious Annalen der Physik on
the capillary forces of straw. He
also took Swiss citizenship in the
same year.
The first steps
Even though Einstein had
graduated, he failed to secure a
teaching job. After struggling for
two years he finally got a job in
Berne at the Federal Office for
Intellectual Property, the patent
office, as an assistant examiner.
His first job was to evaluate
p aten t fo r e le c t ro m a g n e t i c
devices. Though Einstein’s life
was monotonous he managed to
form a club on science with like
minded friends called “The
Olympia Academy". The
members of the club held weekly
meetings and pored over the
works of Poincare, Mach, and
Hume who were to have a
profound influence on him. As
part of his job he dealt with
transmission of electric signals
and electrical-mechanical
synchronization of time. These
technical problems would be later
used in Einstein’s experiments.
Personal life
Einstein married his former
classmate Mileva Marić on 6
January 1903 despite opposition
from his mother. They were
blessed with a son Hans Albert
Einstein who was born in Berne.
Another son Eduard was born in
Zurich. The marriage proved
short lived and finally ended in a
divorcé in Februar y 1919.
Einstein did not remain single for
long. In the same year he tied the
knot with Elsa Löwenthal who
was his cousin. Elsa had two
daughter s from a previous
marriage who grew up in the
Einstein household.
That Wonderful Year
In the year 1905, while he was
still working in the patent office a
leading German physic journal
published four papers written by
Einstein. History was to later
name these papers Annus
Mirabilis Papers which are now
recognized as masterpieces in
science. The germs of fame were
sown. One of his papers dealing
with the particulate nature of
light expounded the idea that
certain experimental results,
notably the photoelectric effect,
could be simply understood from
the postulate that light interacts
with matter as discrete
"packets" (quanta) of energy.
Another paper on Brownian
motion explained the random
movement of very small objects
as direct evidence of molecular
action, supported the atomic
t h e o r y. H i s p a p e r o n t h e
electrodynamics of moving bodies
proclaimed the new theory of
special relativity, which showed
that the observed independence
of the speed of light on the
observer's state of motion
required fundamental changes to
the notion of simultaneity. In his
paper on mass–energy
equivalence , Einstein gave birth
to one of twentieth century’s most
well known equation: E  =  mc2.
This paper proved that even small
amounts of energy could be used
to make massive amounts
of energy. His theory
foreshadowed the advent
of nuclear power. Though
the year 1905 is now
recognized as one of the
most wonderful years of
Einstein’s life, where he
made ground breaking
achievements the papers
were not well received by
the scientific community.
They were mostly ignored
and the few who noticed
them did not agree with
them. At the age of 26
Einstein had another
achievement under his
belt. He was awarded the
PhD by the University of
Zurich. He had studied
under Alfred Kleiner,
Professor of Experimental
Physics.
Road to Greatness
In 1906, Einstein received a
promotion from the patent office.
His designation was now
Technical Examiner. Meanwhile
Einstein continued his education.
The year 1908 found him as a
privatdozent at the University of
Bern. In 1910 he wrote another
now famous paper in which he
described the cumulative effect of
light scattered by individual
molecules in the atmosphere
proving the scientific reason
behind why the sky appeared to
be blue. During 1909, Einstein
published "Über die Entwicklung
unserer Anschauungen über das
Wesen und die Konstitution der
Strahlung" ("The Development of
Our Views on the Composition
and Essence of Radiation"), on
the quantization of light. It gave
the photon concept which was
later used to prove wave–particle
duality in quantum mechanics.
Finally Einstein was able to leave
his job at the patent office when
he was appointed associate
professor at the University of
Zurich. He switched jobs and
took up the job of a professor at
the German Charles-Ferdinand
University in Prague. While he
was working in Prague he
published another of his path
breaking papers dealing with
effects of gravity on light. In 1912
Einstein became the professor of
his former collage at ETH. He
came into contact with
Mathematician Marcel
Grossmann. Einstein began to
take an interest in Riemannian
geometry. Einstein now began
toying with the possibilities of
using general covariance in
proving his theory on gravitation.
His research yielded fruit and by
1915 he had published a ground
breaking paper on the theory of
relativity which is used till today.
Meanwhile Einstein decided to go
back to Berlin. He became a
member of the Prussian Academy
of Sciences and professor
at the Humboldt
University of Berlin. He
was free from most
teaching assignments to
enable him to devote more
time to research. Another
honor came his way. In
1914 he was appointed
director of the Kaiser
Wilhelm Institute for
Physics which he served till
1932. Meanwhile
Einstein’s fame began to
s p re a d . S o m e o f t h e
extraordinary work he had
done reached UK and the
US. After World War I he
was appointed as
Extraordinary Professor of
the Leiden University.
Fame and the Nobel
Prize
Further recognition of his
genius followed. In May 1919,a
team of British astronomers
stated that they had confirmed
Einstein’s earlier prediction of
g r av i t a t i o n a l d e fl e c t i o n o f
starlight by the Sun while
photographing a solar eclipse in
Sobral, northern Brazil, and
Príncipe. The headlines of Times
a renowned British newspaper
s c r e a m e d ” Re vo l u t i o n i n
Science  – New Theory of the
Universe  – Newtonian Ideas
Overthrown”. Nobel laureate
Research
After completing his research on
g e n e r a l re l at i v i t y E i n s t e i n
concentrated on the theory of
gravitation. His objective was to
simplify the basic laws of physics
dealing with gravitation and
electromagnetism. . In 1950, he
described this "unified field
theory" in a Scientific American
article entitled "On the
Generalized Theory of
Gravitation" However he could
not realize his dream and his
efforts did not bear fruit. In the
year 1924, Einstein was given a
description of a statistical model
from Indian physicist Satyendra
Nath Bose, based on a counting
method that assumed that light
could be understood as a gas of
i n d i s t i n g u i s h a bl e p a r t i c l e s.
Einstein submitted a translated
version of Bose‘s paper the
Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein
also made original contributions
by publishing his own articles
describing the model and its
implications, which included the
Bose–Einstein condensate
phenomenon that made an
appearance at very low
temperatures Einstein- Bose
statistics are now used to describe
the behaviors of any assembly of
"bosons". The path that Einstein
chose to travel in was a novel one.
He however did not live to see the
seed he had sown blossom into a
fertile plant. Decades later in
1995 the first such condensate
was produced experimentally by
Eric Allin Cornell and Carl
Wieman using ultra-cooling
equipment built at the NIST-JILA
laboratory at the University of
C o l o r a d o a t B o u l d e r.
Coordinating with his former
student Leo Szilard, Einstein
invented a refrigerator bearing his
name. This unique refrigerator
had no moving parts and was
developed using only heat as an
input.
A new development took place in
the scientific world. In the 1920s
quantum mechanics was
developed into a complete theory.
Einstein did not see eye to eye
with the "Copenhagen
inter pretation" of quantum
theory developed by Niels Bohr.
He felt that the description of
nature advocated by this theory
was incomplete and left much to
be desired. Einstein in
collaboration with Boris Podolsky
and Nathan Rosen, observed that
the theory seemed to require non-
local interactions; this is known as
the EPR paradox . The EPR
experiment has since been
performed, with results
confirming quantum theory's
predictions.
World figure
Einstein was now regarded as one
of the great figures the world had
ever produced. Such was the
effect of his personality that his
views were sought and aired on a
wide variety of subjects’ including
God and nature. A deeply
compassionate man he was
associated with humanitarian,
social and political projects all
over the world. The world was
changing rapidly. Ger many
witnessed turbulent times with the
rapid rise of Hitler and Nazism.
Einstein was a strong critic of
Nazism. His political belief
veered around socialist Zionism.
He lent his support to the creation
of a Jewish homeland. An apostle
of peace Einstein saw with
dismay the rise of Hitler and the
aggressive postures he assumed.
When Hitler became Chancellor,
one of his first actions was to
remove Jews from high positions.
Einstein could foresee that he had
no place in Nazi Germany. As
early as 1932 Einstein left his
homeland and made his home in
America.
The last years
The Einsteins decided to settle
down in America permanently.
They purchased a house in
Princeton. Einstein came face to
face with tragedy when he lost his
wife Elsa in 1936. During the
Second World War Einstein did
his bit to help his fellow Jews to
escape from Germany. He wrote
numerous a f fi d a v i t s
recommending US visas for them.
He helped to raise funds for
Zionist organizations. He
officially took citizenship of the
US in 1940. During the Second
World War many scientists feared
that Germany had the capacity to
develop the atom bomb. In a
letter to the then American
President Franklin Roosevelt,
Einstein urged the American
government to develop the bomb.
He later regretted his decision.
President Roosevelt followed
Einstein’s advice .The effort to
develop the bomb was called the
Manhattan Project. The bomb
came into being and was later
used against Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. World War II was over
in 1945 but it also marked the
beginning of the cold war
between the two super powers
USA and USSR and the
beginning of a new arms race.
Einstein maintained friendly
relations with the Soviet bloc. He
advocated one world order. He
was also against further
development of nuclear weapons
and lobbied to stop further
testing. Einstein was a member of
several civil rights g roups,
including the Princeton chapter of
the NAACP. He continued to play
an active role in public affairs till
his death. The end came in 1955.
On 17 April Einstein suffered
from internal bleeding. He
breathed his last at the Princeton
Hospital. Einstein was then 76
years old. He remained active till
the end. During his last days he
was preparing the draft of a
speech which he would have
b ro a d c a s t o n t h e s eve n t h
anniversary of the formation of
Israel. Prior to his cremation his
brain was removed. It was hoped
that neuroscience of the future
would be able to analyze the
enormous power of his brain.
He was regarded as "the greatest
scientist of the twentieth century
and one of the supreme
intellects of all time."
Twenty Famous Quotes
“I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details”
- Albert Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”

- Albert Einstein

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once”

- Albert Einstein

“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”
- Albert Einstein

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop
questioning.”
- Albert Einstein

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

- Albert Einstein

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

- Albert Einstein

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

- Albert Einstein

“Science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking?"

- Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought
with sticks and stones."
- Albert Einstein

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and
all science. He to whom this emotion is strangers, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand
rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed
. - Albert Einstein
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”
- Albert Einstein

“Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and
uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore”
- Albert Einstein

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

- Albert Einstein

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

- Albert Einstein

“E = mc²: Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.”

- Albert Einstein

“Reading after a certain (time) diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who
reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.”
- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.”
- Albert Einstein

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

- Albert Einstein.
God
Einstein’s views on God were unconventional. Many branded him as an
atheist He did nor believe in a personal God who interfered with the affairs
of mankind but believed in the power of a supreme being whose spirit
seemed to be governing the universe. In his book The World as I See It, he
wrote: "A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of
the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty,
which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it
is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious
attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man”
Einstein spoke and wrote frequently of God. He looked with wonder at God
the creator, and was actually a deeply humane and religious man.

“God reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.”

- Albert Einstein

“God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.”

- Albert Einstein

“God is subtle but he is not malicious”

- Albert Einstein

“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.”

- Albert Einstein

“Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.”

- Albert Einstein

“True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness”
- Albert Einstein

“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a
God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings”

- Albert Einstein

"I can not accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death or blind faith. I
can not prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a
liar."
-Albert Einstein
"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, been placed in doubt by modern science”
- Albert Einstein

“When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

- Albert Einstein

“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”

- Albert Einstein
Science
Science was Einstein’s first love and the passion of his life. Everything else
took a back seat to it. He experienced an artist’s joy of creation while
exploring the great laws of nature. He is widely regarded as the greatest
scientist of the twentieth century, a genius whose theories and experiments
gave us profound knowledge about the universe and changed the concept of
space, time and energy. Till the very end he retained the spirit of joy a child
feels about the great phenomena of nature and the curiosity to discover
more about them. To him delving in the mysteries of science was an escape
from the monotony and problems of the everyday world into a lover’s arms.

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

- Albert Einstein

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

- Albert Einstein

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
- Albert Einstein

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
- Albert Einstein

"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is
something for eternity."
- Albert Einstein

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain;
they do not refer to reality."
- Albert Einstein

"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."
- Albert Einstein
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People
like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a
stubbornly persistent illusion."
- Albert Einstein

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his
head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same
way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
- Albert Einstein

"...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."
- Albert Einstein

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

- Albert Einstein

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”
- Albert Einstein

“It should be possible to explain the laws of physics to a barmaid.”

- Albert Einstein

“It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome
man's insecurity before himself and before nature.”
- Albert Einstein

“Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed
in a language comprehensible to everyone.”
- Albert Einstein

“Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense experience correspond to a
logically uniform system of thought.”
- Albert Einstein
“Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is
character.”
- Albert Einstein

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

- Albert Einstein

“The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical
deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”
- Albert Einstein
War and Peace
An apostle of peace, he abhorred any kind of violence and was a staunch
pacifist, who attended the League of Nations and other disarmament
groups. He took the extreme view that taking a life even in a war was equal
to plain murder. However when Hitler rose to power, Einstein felt everything
should be done to stop Hitler. He even wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt,
the President of America urging him to develop the atom bomb. He was to
rue his decision when the city of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was reduced to
rubble by atom bombs. From then onwards he was a crusader against the
bomb and felt that scientists should not help nations to develop destructive
armaments. He opposed nationalism and advocated the concept of one
world with a world government at the helm.

“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”

- Albert Einstein

“So long as there are men there will be wars.”

- Albert Einstein

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name
of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!”

- Albert Einstein

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we
thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
- Albert Einstein

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”

- Albert Einstein

“Force always attracts men of low morality.”

- Albert Einstein

“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end
war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.”
- Albert Einstein

“I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps
two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.”
- Albert Einstein
“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to make the methods of annihilation ever 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.”

-
Albert Einstein

“Human beings are not condemned, because of their biological constitution, to annihilate each
other or to be at the mercy of a cruel, self-inflicted fate.”
- Albert Einstein

“The pioneers of a warless world are the young men and women who refuse military service.”

-Albert Einstein

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

- Albert Einstein

“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.”

-Albert Einstein

"It may affront the military-minded person to suggest a reqime that does not maintain any
military secrets."
- Albert Einstein

"Taken on the whole, I would believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the
political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit...not to use violence in fighting
for our cause, but by non-participation in what we believe is evil."

-Albert Einstein

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

- Albert Einstein

“ We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of pacifism...
Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I
would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.”

- Albert Einstein
Education and Teaching
Einstein’s views on education too were unconventional. He was against the
modern methods of education at the school level which squeezed out the
pleasure of attaining knowledge. He was against the system of learning by
rote which deadened a child’s curiosity. According to him an ideal teacher
was the one who could create a sense of wonder and awe in his student. He
was bored in classrooms and detested the formal school education he
received.

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

- Albert Einstein

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

-Albert Einstein

"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."
- Albert Einstein

“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.”

- Albert Einstein

"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."
- Albert Einstein

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard
duty.”
- Albert Einstein

"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."

- Albert Einstein

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”

- Albert Einstein
 “According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking
and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that
end exclusively.”
- Albert Einstein
Wisdom
Einstein possessed one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. He
brought his great mind to bear not only on science but offered pearls of
wisdom on almost everything under the sun. His words reveal a mind which
has pondered deeply on the lot of fellow human beings. Einstein was gifted
with a natural flair for words. He has been extensively quoted and many of
his opinions are relevant even today.

“Perfection of means and confusion of goals seem -- in my opinion -- to characterize our age.”

-Albert Einstein

“The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.”
- Albert Einstein

“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.”

- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of
factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.”
- Albert Einstein

“The environment is everything that isn't me.”

- Albert Einstein

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
- Albert Einstein
“The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at
when we created them.”
- Albert Einstein

“In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for
issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.”
- Albert Einstein

“The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule...”

- Albert Einstein

“Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.”

- Albert Einstein

“Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and
the resulting actions.”
- Albert Einstein

“Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self
preservation.”
- Albert Einstein

“Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.”

- Albert Einstein

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”

- Albert Einstein

“In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”

- Albert Einstein

“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry
lot indeed.”
- Albert Einstein
Funny Quotes
Even while delving into profound scientific research Einstein displayed his
sense of playful humor. A great creative mind, he had the ability to see into
the funny side of things. He had a sharp wit which surfaces frequently in his
writings, letters and speeches.

“Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love”

- Albert Einstein

“To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.”
- Albert Einstein

“It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it. (referring
to clothing)”
- Albert Einstein

“I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a
circus.”
- Albert Einstein

“How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a
biological phenomenon as first love”
- Albert Einstein

“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”

- Albert Einstein

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

- Albert Einstein

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

- Albert Einstein

“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor”
- Albert Einstein
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe”
- Albert Einstein

“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention
it deserves”
- Albert Einstein

“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.”

-Albert Einstein
Society
Albert Einstein was one of the most influential personalities of the
twentieth century. His opinion was sought on all possible topics and he
freely gave them. He often voiced his concern over the underdog like the
blacks in America and was a strong opponent of racial discrimination. His
vision of an ideal society was a utopian world where human beings lived
together in peace and harmony and lend a helping hand to each other.

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded
the individual.”
- Albert Einstein

“At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such
feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on.”
- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”
- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“Every kind of peaceful cooperation among men is primarily based on mutual trust and only
secondarily on institutions such as courts of justice and police.”
- Albert Einstein

“The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.”

- Albert Einstein
"Bias against the Negro is the worst disease from which the society of our nation suffers."

- Albert Einstein
Personal
Einstein was not only one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century but
a unique personality. He was a free thinker who held unconventional views
on most subjects. Though he was considered a towering genius, he
remained humble and felt he had no special talents only an inquisitive
mind. He led a simple life with a limited wardrobe as he did not want to
waste time deciding on what to wear. To him good clothes were superfluous
and fashions a waste of time and energy. He was also an extremely humane
man with a deep compassion for the suffering of mankind. He had a
wandering mind which while pondering over great matters, lost track of
mundane things in everyday life. He was extremely disorganized in his
personal life.

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of
other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I
have received.”

- Albert Einstein

“Why is it that nobody understands me and everybody likes me”

- Albert Einstein

“I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged
endurance, combined with self-criticism have brought me to my ideas.”

- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.”

- Albert Einstein

“There has already been published by the bucketfuls such brazen lies and utter fictions about me
that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had let myself pay attention to that.”

- Albert Einstein
“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for
personal independence - these are the features of Jewish tradition that make me thank my stars
that I belong to it.”
- Albert Einstein

“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.”

- Albert Einstein

“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.”
- Albert Einstein

“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth
time I am right.”
- Albert Einstein

“How do I work? I grope.”

- Albert Einstein

“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.”
- Albert Einstein

“If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.”

- Albert Einstein

“My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the Universe.”

- Albert Einstein

“I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.”

- Albert Einstein

“A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”

- Albert Einstein
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion.”

- Albert Einstein

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.”

- Albert Einstein

“I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist.”

- Albert Einstein

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”

- Albert Einstein

“I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion.”

- Albert Einstein

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me
wrong.”
- Albert Einstein

“You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I've only ever had one.”
- Albert Einstein
Einstein’s Historic Speeches
Albert Einstein, 1918
Principles of Research Speech rendered to the Physical Society Berlin

This speech was given in honor of Max Plank’s sixtieth birthday. He is regarded as
one of the founding fathers of twentieth century physics. He is credited to be the
founder of quantum theory. In this famous speech Einstein dwells not only on
Science but also on his philosophy. This speech also reveals Einstein’s command
over language. The words have a lyrical quality about them. To him a scientist’s
devotion to his work is like a lover paying homage to his beloved.

Full Transcript:
In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and
the motives that have led them thither. 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 has 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. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.
I am quite aware that we have just now lightheartedly expelled in imagination many excellent
men who are largely, perhaps chiefly, responsible for the buildings of the temple of science; and in
many cases our angel would find it a pretty ticklish job to decide. But of one thing I feel sure: if
the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have come
to be, any more than a forest can grow which consists of nothing but creepers. For these people
any sphere of human activity will do, if it comes to a point; whether they become engineers,
officers, tradesmen, or scientists depends on circumstances. Now let us have another look at those
who have found favor with the angel. Most of them are somewhat odd, uncommunicative, solitary
fellows, really less like each other, in spite of these common characteristics, than the hosts of the
rejected. What has brought them to the temple? That is a difficult question and no single answer
will cover it. To begin with, I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that
leads 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 personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be
compared with the townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings
into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and
fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.
With this negative motive there goes a positive one. 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 scientist 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 the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.
What place does the theoretical physicist's picture of the world occupy among all these possible
pictures? It demands the highest possible standard of rigorous precision in the description of
relations, such as only the use of mathematical language can give. In regard to his subject matter,
on the other hand, the physicist has to limit himself very severely: he must content himself with
describing the most simple events which can be brought within the domain of our experience; all
events of a more complex order are beyond the power of the human intellect to reconstruct with
the subtle accuracy and logical perfection which the theoretical physicist demands. Supreme
purity, clarity, and certainty at the cost of completeness. But what can be the attraction of getting
to know such a tiny section of nature thoroughly, while one leaves everything subtler and more
complex shyly and timidly alone? Does the product of such a modest effort deserve to be called by
the proud name of a theory of the universe?
In my belief the name is justified; for the general laws on which the structure of theoretical
physics is based claim to be valid for any natural phenomenon whatsoever. With them, it ought to
be possible to arrive at the description, that is to say, the theory, of every natural process, including
life, by means of pure deduction, if that process of deduction were not far beyond the capacity of
the human intellect. The physicist's renunciation of completeness for his cosmos is therefore not a
matter of fundamental principle.
The supreme task of the physicist is to arrive at those universal elementary laws from which the
cosmos can be built up by pure deduction. There is no logical path to these laws; only intuition,
resting on sympathetic understanding of experience, can reach them. In this methodological
uncertainty, one might suppose that there were any number of possible systems of theoretical
physics all equally well justified; and this opinion is no doubt correct, theoretically. But the
development of physics has shown that at any given moment, out of all conceivable constructions,
a single one has always proved itself decidedly superior to all the rest. Nobody who has really
gone deeply into the matter will deny that in practice the world of phenomena uniquely
determines the theoretical system, in spite of the fact that there is no logical bridge between
phenomena and their theoretical principles; this is what Leibnitz described so happily as a "pre-
established harmony." Physicists often accuse epistemologists of not paying sufficient attention to
this fact. Here, it seems to me, lie the roots of the controversy carried on some years ago between
Mach and Planck.
The longing to behold this pre-established harmony is the source of the inexhaustible patience
and perseverance with which Planck has devoted himself, as we see, to the most general problems
of our science, refusing to let himself be diverted to more grateful and more easily attained ends. I
have often heard colleagues try to attribute this attitude of his to extraordinary will-power and
discipline -- wrongly, in my opinion. The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this
kind is akin to that of the religious worshiper or the lover; the daily effort comes from no
deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart. There he sits, our beloved Planck,
and smiles inside himself at my childish playing-about with the lantern of Diogenes. Our
affection for him needs no threadbare explanation. May the love of science continue to illumine
his path in the future and lead him to the solution of the most important problem in present-day
physics, which he has himself posed and done so much to solve. May he succeed in uniting
quantum theory with electrodynamics and mechanics in a single logical system.
Albert Einstein, 1932
Speech delivered to the German League of Human Rights in Berlin

Einstein was not moved by science alone although it was the ruling passion of his
life. He was also greatly concerned about basic human rights which he felt should
be enjoyed by every human being on earth. Einstein was a staunch pacifist. He
abhorred violence and war. He even disliked the spirit of nationalism and
patriotism which often led to mindless slaughter. This speech contains some of his
most famous quotes and also reflects his views on social justice, pacifism and
religion.

Full Transcript:
Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and
uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore. In our daily lives we only
feel that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings
whose fate is connected with our own. I am often worried at the thought that my life is based to
such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings and I am aware of my great
indebtedness to them.

I do not believe in freedom of the will. Schopenhauer's words: “Man can do what he wants, but
he cannot will what he wills” accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me
with the actions of others even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of
freedom of will preserves me from taking too seriously myself and my fellow men as acting and
deciding individuals and from losing my temper.

I never coveted affluence and luxury and even despise them a good deal.

My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to
any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely necessary. I always have a high
regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship.

All these motives made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any
nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have
always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.

I am an adherent of the ideal of democracy, although I well know the weaknesses of the
democratic form of government. Social equality and economic protection of the individual
appeared to me always as the important communal aims of the state.

Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible

community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling
isolated.

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the
underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science. He who never
had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything
that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and
sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.

In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to
grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that there is.
Albert Einstein as Author
The World as I see it
The World as I See It is one of the most comprehensive
collections of essays, articles and letters written by Albert
Einstein. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest scientists
that the world has ever produced but in this book we get a
glimpse of a different side of his personality. Albert Einstein
was a radical free thinker who took a keen interest in the
affairs of the world. This book provides an insight into
Einstein’s philosophy of life and his concept of metaphysics.
We also see the deeply humanitarian side of the man who
believed that the world would be a better place if we help
each other. Living in turbulent times which saw the world
ravaged by two world wars, he advocated peace and
pacifism.

The book can be divided into four parts. The World AS I

See It, Politics and Pacifism, Germany and the Jews.
Einstein’s prose is clear and flowing and reflects simplicity of
thought. It is a wonderful book written by a brilliant mind

From the book:

When we survey our lives and endeavors we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions
and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We see that our whole nature
resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have grown, wear clothes that others
have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs
has been communicated to us by other people through the medium of a language which others
have created. Without language our mental capacities would be poor indeed, comparable to those
of the higher animals; we have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal advantage over the
beasts to the fact of living in human society. The individual, if left alone from birth would remain
primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The
individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his
individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and
spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave.
- Albert Einstein
Out of My Later Years
As the title suggests this book covers the later years of Einstein’s
life spanning from 1934-1950. It contains one of the best
collections of essays, letters and speeches and gives us a peep into
the world of a brilliant mind. This book opens a window into the
life of the great man and gives us his views on as varied topics as
education, religious and social issues besides science. The book
has sections on 'Convictions and Beliefs' 'Science and Life' ' Public
Affairs' ' Personalities' and 'His own people: The Jews" In
Personalities, he writes about various scientists and great leaders of
his day like Gandhi, Newton, Kepler, Planck, Madame Curie,
Langevin, and lesser known figures Paul Ehrenfest,Carl von
Ossietsky. “The Jews” deals with the creation of a national
homeland for the Jews and Zionism. The book also visualizes his
concept of a global village. He writes with pathos, the history of
his homeland Germany as it witnessed the rise of Hitler and the
birth of anti- Semitism.

From the book:

We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves that our conscious acts spring
from our desires and our fears. Intuition tells us that that is true also of our fellows and of the
higher animals. We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant. We all are
ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general
serve for our self-preservation and that of the race. Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those
inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self-preservation. At the same time, as social
beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride,
hate, need for power, pity, and so on. All these primary impulses, not easily described in words, are
the springs of man's actions. All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were
to cease stirring within us.
- Albert Einstein
Relativity: The special and general theory

This book presents an opportunity to students of

science to learn all about relativity from the twentieth
century genius. This book explains the theories of
relativity which catapulted him to world fame. It is full
of examples and contains a certain amount of
mathematics though these are not difficult to
comprehend. Elucidating on the objective of the book
Einstein wrote” The present book is intended,"
Einstein wrote in 1916, "as far as possible, to give an
exact insight into the theory of Relativity to those
readers who, from a general scientific and
philosophical point of view, are interested in the
theory, but who are not conversant with the
mathematical apparatus of theoretical physics.... In the
interest of clearness, it appeared to me inevitable that I
should repeat myself frequently, without paying the
slightest attention to the elegance of the presentation. I
adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant
theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann, according to whom
matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to
the cobbler." Compared to other books on the same
topic Einstein’s book is relatively easy to understand. Throughout the book there is clarity of
thought and language. This book is meant for science students as a certain amount of knowledge
of Physics is essential to comprehend the book. Though this book was published way back in
1920, students of science will find it useful even today. The book is divided into three parts. The
first part deals with Special theory of relativity, the second with general theory of relativity and
the third with Considerations of the Universe as a whole.
 The figure of Albert Einstein dominates the twentieth century. He has been declared
Times’ Person of the Century. One of the greatest scientists the world has ever
produced, his name has become a symbol for genius. Gifted with an extraordinary
mind he solved the riddles of some of the deepest secrets of the universe and gave us
the theory of relativity as well as the most famous equation of Physics E=MC2. The
most important discoveries of Physics including the quantum theory, Big Bang and the
making of the atom bomb have his stamp. This book gives you a glimpse of the man
behind the scientist. Besides being a brilliant scientist who won the Nobel Prize, he was
a great humanitarian, a philosopher who contemplated on the affairs of human beings
and a pacifist in an era of world wars. This extraordinary man spurned power when
he was offered the Presidentship of Israel. A simple man who did away with
superfluous things and liked to greet his guests wearing an old sweater and slippers his figure dominated an age
devastated by two world wars and his opinion was sought on almost every topic under the sun. No other scientist
in the world had been more idolized and been at the receiving end of so much attention.

Journalists noted down each word he uttered and he is

also one of the most quoted men of the century gone by.

“I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details”

- Albert Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”
- Albert Einstein

“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”
- Albert Einstein

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop
questioning.”
- Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought
with sticks and stones."
- Albert Einstein

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