Quotes — Society and the World

Albert Einstein

Nationalism is, in my opinion, nothing more than an idealistic rationalization for militarism and aggression.

By October 1933, when Einstein gave a speech in London’s Royal Albert Hall including this quote, he was already an exile from Hitler’s Germany, where nationalism was almost like the national religion.

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Albert Einstein

Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it. A citizenry that is politically indifferent will always end up enslaved no matter what form its constitution and legal institutions take.

Here Einstein makes the case that unchecked power and authority always will move to strengthen itself with more power and authority, whether it exists inside a democracy or not.

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Albert Einstein

Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it. A citizenry that is politically indifferent will always end up enslaved no matter what form its constitution and legal institutions take.

Here Einstein makes the case that unchecked power and authority always will move to strengthen itself with more power and authority, whether it exists inside a democracy or not.

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Albert Einstein

As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.

In 1933, Einstein was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. Einstein never returned to his old home.

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Albert Einstein

As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.

In 1933, Einstein was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. Einstein never returned to his old home.

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Albert Einstein

As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.

In 1933, Einstein was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler took power in Germany. Einstein never returned to his old home.

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Albert Einstein

The State exists for man, not man for the State… I believe that the most important mission of the State is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. The State should be our servant; we should not be slaves of the State. The State violates this precept when it forces us to perform military service.

This comes from a 1931 article in the New York Times Magazine called “The Road to Peace.”

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Albert Einstein

The State exists for man, not man for the State… I believe that the most important mission of the State is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. The State should be our servant; we should not be slaves of the State. The State violates this precept when it forces us to perform military service.

This comes from a 1931 article in the New York Times Magazine called “The Road to Peace.”

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Albert Einstein

The State exists for man, not man for the State… I believe that the most important mission of the State is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. The State should be our servant; we should not be slaves of the State. The State violates this precept when it forces us to perform military service.

This comes from a 1931 article in the New York Times Magazine called “The Road to Peace.”

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Albert Einstein

To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

Spoken to a friend in 1930. Einstein always looked upon authority suspiciously, and probably wished all of those who sought his knowledge and opinions would do the same with him.

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Albert Einstein

To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

Spoken to a friend in 1930. Einstein always looked upon authority suspiciously, and probably wished all of those who sought his knowledge and opinions would do the same with him.

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Albert Einstein

Individual freedom provides a better basis for productive labor than any form of tyranny.

When Einstein visited the United States in 1930, his arrival in the port of New York was a big deal. This quote comes from a broadcast with Einstein after he deboarded his ship.

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Albert Einstein

Individual freedom provides a better basis for productive labor than any form of tyranny.

When Einstein visited the United States in 1930, his arrival in the port of New York was a big deal. This quote comes from a broadcast with Einstein after he deboarded his ship.

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Albert Einstein

Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.

Einstein said this to one of his teachers in 1901. He was talking about a professor who he considered closed-minded, but the statement holds true of Einstein’s feelings on all types of authority figures throughout his life.

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Albert Einstein

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Einstein addressed the French Philosophical Society in 1922 and included this quote. It’s an example of his negative feelings on Nationalism, which he believed manipulated people into false pride.

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Albert Einstein

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Einstein addressed the French Philosophical Society in 1922 and included this quote. It’s an example of his negative feelings on Nationalism, which he believed manipulated people into false pride.

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Albert Einstein

If one purges all subsequent additions from the original teachings of the Prophets and Christianity, especially those of the priests, one is left with a doctrine that is capable of curing all the social ills of humankind.

This 1933 statement comes from the Jewish publication Renasterea Noastra, of Romania.

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Albert Einstein

I believe in Spinoza’s God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.

This was part of an answer to Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein in 1929. Spinoza’s believed that God was inseparable from the material world, and so to become closer to God, a person should better understand the workings of the Universe. Elsewhere, Einstein stated explicitly that he was not an atheist.

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Albert Einstein

In every true searcher of Nature there is a kind of religious reverence, for he finds it impossible to imagine that he is the first to have thought out the exceedingly delicate threads that connect his perceptions.

German author Alexander Moszkowski had many conversations with Einstein, which he eventually made into a book. This snippet comes from 1920.

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Albert Einstein

The word “Jewish” has two meanings: It has to do with (1) nationality and descent; (2) religion. I am a Jew in the first sense but not in the second.

When Einstein addressed Berlin’s Jewish Community in 1921, this was part of his message. He didn’t believe in the religion of Judaism, yet he identified as a Jew.

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Albert Einstein

The word “Jewish” has two meanings: It has to do with (1) nationality and descent; (2) religion. I am a Jew in the first sense but not in the second.

When Einstein addressed Berlin’s Jewish Community in 1921, this was part of his message. He didn’t believe in the religion of Judaism, yet he identified as a Jew.

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Albert Einstein

Upon reading books on philosophy, I learned that I stood there like a blind man in front of a painting… the works of speculative philosophy are beyond my reach.

Einstein wrote this in 1917 to the philosopher Eduard Hartmann, with whom he corresponded regularly.

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Albert Einstein

The scientist is possessed by a sense of universal causation… His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection… It is beyond question closely akin to that which has possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.

Like many great thinkers before him – Socrates being perhaps the most famous example – Einstein realized that the more questions he and humanity answered, the more new questions arose. Essentially, the more we know, the more we understand how little we know.

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Albert Einstein

Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.

Einstein was probably speaking of financial success in the Life Magazine article that came out just days after his death in 1955. He held notable disdain for the pursuit of money.

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