BORN: March 14th, 1879 at 11:30 AM in Ulm, Germany.
DIED: April 18, 1955
"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."
To Top
"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."
To Top
"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."
To Top
"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."
To Top
"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
"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."
"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"
"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. ...Notes
on pacifism
"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."
"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.
"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..."
When Einstein died on April 18, 1955 he left a piece of writing ending in an
unfinished sentence.
These were his last words:
In essence, the conflict that exists today is no more than an old-style struggle
for power, once again presented to mankind in semireligious trappings. The
difference is that, this time, the development of atomic power has imbued
the struggle with a ghostly character; for both parties know and admit that,
should the quarrel deteriorate into actual war, mankind is doomed. Despite
this knowledge, statesmen in responsible positions on both sides continue
to employ the well-known technique of seeking to intimidate and demoralize
the opponent by marshaling superior military strength. They do so even though
such a policy entails the risk of war and doom. Not one statesman in a position
of responsibility has dared to pursue the only course that holds out any promise
of peace, the course of supranational security, since for a statesman to follow
such a course would be tantamount to political suicide. Political passions,
once they have been fanned into flame, exact their victims ... Citater fra...
TO Top
The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government & the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."— Albert Einstein, "My First Impression of the U.S.A.", 1921