Einstein on God

"I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings." Upon being asked if he believed in God by Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the Institutional Synagogue, New York, April 24, 1921, Einstein: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 502.

"an attempt to find an out where there is no door." Einstein's description of religious thought, Einstein: The Life and Times, Ronald W. Clark, Page 516.

"Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntary 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." ... "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." Einstein's speech 'My Credo' to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin, autumn 1932, Einstein: A Life in Science, Michael White and John Gribbin, Page 262.

And here's one that seems to speak from the grave:
"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 in Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas (Einstein's secretary) and Banesh Hoffman, and published by Princeton University Press.

source::http://www.2think.org/einstein.shtml

Einstein's Fourth Letter To Roosevelt

112 Mercer StreetPrinceton,

New Jersey

March 25, 1945

The Honorable Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President of the United States

The White House

Washington, D.C.

Sir:
I am writing to introduce Dr. L. Szilard who proposes to submit to you certain consideration and recommendation. Unusual circumstances which I shall describe further below introduce me to take this action in spite of the fact that I do not know the substance of the considerations and recommendations which Dr. Szilard proposes to submit to you.

In the summer of 1939 Dr. Szilard put before me his views concerning the potential importance of uranium for national defense. He was greatly disturbed by the potentialities involved and anxious that the United States Government be advised of them as soon as possible.

Dr. Szilard, who is one of the discoverers of the neutron emission of uranium on which all present work on uranium is based, described to me a specific system which he devised and which he thought would make it possible to set up a chain reaction in un-separated uranium in the immediate future. Having known him for over twenty years both from his scientific work and personally, I have much confidence in his judgment and it was on the basis of his judgment as well as my own that I took the liberty to approach you in connection with this subject.

You responded to my letter dated August 2, 1939 by the appointment of a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Briggs and thus started the Government's activity in this field.
The terms of secrecy under which Dr. Szilard is working at present do not permit him to give me information about his work; however, I understand that he now is greatly concerned about the lack of adequate contact between scientist who are doing this work and those members of your Cabinet who are responsible for formulating policy.

In the circumstances I consider it my duty to give Dr. Szilard this introduction and I wish to express the hope that you will be able to give his presentation of the case your personal attention.

Very truly yours,

(A. Einstein)

Source:: Ronald W. Clark. Einstein: The Life and Times. New York: Avon Books, 1970: 681.

Einstein's Third Letter to Roosevelt

April 25, 1940

I am convinced as to the wisdom and the urgency of creating the conditions under which that and related work can be carried out with greater speed and on a larger scale than hitherto.

I was interested in a suggestion made by Dr. Sachs that the Special Advisory Committee supply names of persons to serve as a board of trustees for a nonprofit organization which, with the approval of the government committee, could secure from governmental or private sources or both, the necessary funds for carrying out the work.

Given such a framework and the necessary funds, it (the large-scale experiments and exploration of practical applications) could be carried out much faster than through a loose cooperation of university laboratories and government departments.

source::Ronald W. Clark. Einstein: The Life and Times. New York: Avon Books, 1970: 681.

Note::documents shows only fragment of letter body.

Einstein Second Letter To Roosevelt

I wish to draw your attention to the development which has taken place since the conference that was arranged through your good offices in October last year between scientists engaged in this work and governmental representatives.

Last year, when I realized that results of national importance might arise out of research on uranium, I thought it my duty to inform the administration of this possibility. You will perhaps remember that in the letter which I addressed to the President I also mentioned the fact that C. F. von Weizsäcker, son of the German Undersecretary of State, was collaborating with a group of chemists working upon uranium at one of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes - namely, the Institute of Chemistry.

Since the outbreak of the war, interest in uranium has intensified in Germany. I have now learned that research there is carried out in great secrecy and that it has been extended to another of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, the Institute of Physics. The latter has been taken over by the government and a group of physicists, under the leadership of C. F. von Weizsäcker, who is now working there on uranium in collaboration with the Institute of Chemistry. The former director was sent away on leave of absence, apparently for the duration of the war.
Should you think it advisable to relay this information to the President, please consider yourself free to do so. Will you be kind enough to let me know if you are taking action in this direction?

Dr. Szilard has shown me the manuscript which he is sending to the Physics Review in which he describes in detail a method of setting up a chain reaction in uranium. The papers will appear in print unless they are held up, and the question arises whether something ought to be done to withhold publication.

I have discussed with professor Wigner of Princeton University the situation in the light of the information available. Dr. Szilard will let you have a memorandum informing you of the progress made since October last year so that you will be able to take such action as you think in the circumstances advisable. You will see that the line he has pursued is different and apparently more promising than the line pursued by M. Joliot in France, about whose work you may have seen reports in the papers.

Eistein First Letter To Roosevelt

This Letters are given here to acknowledgement about the Revolution of Atom Bomb.

These letters shows the steps of Evolution.

Albert Einstein

Old Grove Rd.

Nassau PointPeconic,

Long Island

August 2nd 1939

F.D. Roosevelt

President of the United States

White HouseWashington, D.C.

Sir:

Some recent work by E.Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been com-municated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uran-ium may be turned into a new and important source of energy in the im-mediate future.

Certain aspects of the situation which has arisen seemto call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action on the partof the Administration. I believe therefore that it is my duty to bringto your attention the following facts and recommendations:In the course of the last four months it has been made probable -through the work of Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard inAmerica - that it may become possible to set up a nuclear chain reactionin a large mass of uranium,by which vast amounts of power and large quant- ities of new radium-like elements would be generated.

Now it appearsalmost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs,and it is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely power-ful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed. A single bomb of thistype, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroythe whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However,such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation byair.
The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderatequantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia.while the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.In view of the situation you may think it desirable to have morepermanent contact maintained between the Administration and the groupof physicists working on chain reactions in America.

One possible wayof achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a personwho has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficialcapacity.

His task might comprise the following:a) to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of thefurther development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uran-ium ore for the United States;b) to speed up the experimental work,which is at present being car-ried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, byproviding funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with yprivate persons who are willing to make contributions for this cause,and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratorieswhich have the necessary equipment.

I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uraniumfrom the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she shouldhave taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the groundthat the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, isattached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of theAmerican work on uranium is now being repeated.

Yours very truly,

Albert Einstein

Satyagraha in Einstein

Have you ever notice the parallelism between the destruction and peace....

Both had been evoluted side by side.......see report and judge urself::

Ghandhi ji was assassinated in 30th January 1948. The following year, when Nehru visited the US he related his conversation with Gandhi to Albert Einstein. With a twinkle in his eyes, Einstein wrote down a number of dates on one side, and events on the other, to show the parallel evolution of the nuclear bomb and Gandhi’s satyagraha respectively — almost from decade to decade since the beginning of the 20th century.

It turned out that by a strange coincidence that while Einstein and his fellow scientists were engaged in work which made the fission of the atom possible, Gandhi was embarking on his experiments in peaceful, non-violent satyagraha in South Africa; indeed the Quit India struggle almost coincided with the American project for the manufacture of the atom bomb.

Einstein Letter To Mahatma Gandhi

Einstein Letter To Mahatma Gandhi::->

Translation::
Respected Mr. Gandhi !
I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts.
With sincere admiration,
Yours A. Einstein.
I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day.

And here is Gandhi's response to Einstein's letter:
LONDON, October 18, 1931
DEAR FRIEND,
I was delighted to have your beautiful letter sent through Sundaram. It is a great consolation to me that the work I am doing finds favour in your sight. I do indeed wish that we could meet face to face and that too in India at my Ashram.
Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI

source::http://streams.gandhiserve.org/einstein.html

Who Was Great::Einstein Or Gandhi

The year 2005 is being celebrated as the World Year of Physics (WYP 2005) to honour the centenary of Einstein's contributions to physics in 1905.

In that year Einstein had published the papers on photoelectric effect, theory of relativity and the Brownian motion. In my openion Einstein is one of the two greatest men of the last century, the other being Mahatma Gandhi. While Einstein represents the best in physics, Gandhi was the greatest spiritual person of the period. Einstein once remarked about Gandhi in the following words:

Thousand years after, the world would scarcely believe that such a man in flesh and blood had ever walked on earth.

This was a remark coming from a great scientist about a great spiritualist.

Einstein On Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history.

He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion.

The moral influence he had on the conciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces.

Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works.We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.

Einstein::A Letter To Nehru

Einstein's letter of June 13 1947 to Nehru focused on moral and historical arguments. He opened with praise for India's constituent assembly, which had just abolished untouchability. "The attention of the world was now fixed on the problem of another group of human beings who, like the untouchables, have been the victims of persecution and discrimination for centuries" - the Jews. He appealed to Nehru as a "consistent champion of the forces of political and economic enlightenment" to rule in favour of "the rights of an ancient people whose roots are in the East". He pleaded for "justice and equity". "Long before the emergence of Hitler I made the cause of Zionism mine because through it I saw a means of correcting a flagrant wrong."

But then Einstein took the bull by the horns, "the nature of the Arab opposition. Though the Arab of Palestine has benefited... economically, he wants exclusive national sovereignty, such as is enjoyed by the Arabs of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria . I

t is a legitimate and natural desire, and justice would seem to call for its satisfaction." But at the end of the first world war, the Allies gave the Arabs 99% of the "vast, underpopulated territories" liberated from the Turks to satisfy their national aspirations and five independent Arab states were established. One per cent was reserved for the Jews "in the land of their origin".

"In the august scale of justice, which weighs need against need, there is no doubt as to whose is more heavy." What the Jews were allotted in the Balfour Declaration "redresses the balance" of justice and history. He concluded by appealing to Nehru to brush aside "the rivalries of power politics and the egotism of petty nationalist appetites" and to support "the glorious renascence which has begun in Palestine".

Nehru replied back saying that due to India's national interests (Muslim minority and Arab friendship), we could not support them and India voted with the Muslim states against partition. Einstein's exchange with Nehru recently surfaced in the Israeli archives and provides details of the mails they exchanged and the mails they did not exchange. Even though Nehru declined Einstein's request, he went and met him later in 1949.

Einstein And Tagore

Tagore on Einstein:

Einstein has often been called a lonely man. Insofar as the realm of the mathematical vision helps to liberate the mind from the crowded trivialities of daily life, I suppose he is a lonely man.

His is what might be called transcendental materialism, which reaches the frontiers of metaphysics, where there can be utter detachment from the entangling world of self. To me both science and art are expressions of our spiritual nature, above our biological necessities and possessed of an ultimate value.

Einstein is an excellent interrogator. We talked long and earnestly about my "religion of man." He punctuated my thoughts with terse remarks of his own, and by his questions I could measure the trend of his own thinking.

Einstein to Tagore:
You are aware of the struggle of creatures that spring forth out of need and dark desires. You seek salvation in quiet contemplation and in the workings of beauty.

Nursing these you have served mankind by a long fruitful life, spreading a mild spirit, as has been proclaimed by the wise men of your people.

Einstein::Man Of The Century

Einstein is an instantly recognisable figure, an icon of intellect and free thinking. He was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879.

Popular legend indicates that he was a slow learner, learning to speak much later than is average.

Elementary school records show he was a gifted child, particularly in maths, physics and violin playing. He rebelled against formal education by rote learning, and was apparently expelled at the age of 15 (reputedly just before he dropped out). He completed his education in Switzerland. Throughout his life he was a non-conformist shunning ceremony and disregarding many societal expectations.

Einstein lived in Berlin during World War I and publicly expressed dissatisfaction with German militarism. He suggested that warfare be abolished and an international organisation be set up to mediate between nations.
While Einstein was visiting the US in 1933, Hitler came to power. Einstein publicly criticised the racial and political policies of Hitler and declared that he would not return to Germany but would base himself at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey as Professor.

In 1939 Einstein wrote his famous letter to President Roosevelt pointing out the possibilities of a nuclear bomb, and recommending US research into nuclear weapons. An ardent pacifist, he was prompted to do this by several prominent scientists and the thought that Hitler would develop such a bomb first.

In actuality the first bomb fell on Japan after the fall of Germany in the war
A compassionate man, Einstein had a deep regard for his fellow humans. He had a keen sense of humour and loved children, often responding to their letters in a way that encouraged their inquisitiveness. He believed that humanity needed to create a moral order if it was to survive.
Einstein did not believe in the concept of a personal God, believing that the divine was revealed in the physical world.

He was a committed atheist but was strongly influenced by his Jewish identity, viewing Judaism as a culture rather than an institutionalised religion. In 1952 he was offered the post of President of Israel. He was deeply moved, but declined the offer.

source::http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/einstein.html

Einstein And Nazis

The Nazis despised Einstein on three counts::

He was too smart for them, he was Jewish, and he advocated world peace.

It didn't matter that his famous formula of E = MC squared laid the theoretical basis for an atomic bomb; Under the twisted logic of anti-Semitism, he was Jewish. Therefore, his work -- work that had wrapped up thousands of years of scientific observation into a few, dazzling theories -- was "Jewish physics" and must be wrong.While Hitler raved, his goons went into action. They burned Einstein's treatises. They raided his lakeside villa in suburban Berlin. They seized his furniture books, bank account and even his violin.

Einstein's fellow physicists, the leading brains of German society, goose-stepped right in line with the brownshirts and threw him out of the Prussian Academy of Science as a "traitor."

Fortunately, Einstein was world-wise enough to know what was coming.

A Little Girl And Einstein

When 8-year-old Adelaide Delong struggled over her addition and times tables, she turned to the one Princeton neighbour she figured could help -- Albert Einstein.

Clutching a plate of homemade fudge and a book of arithmetic problems, young Addie knocked on 112 Mercer St. one day in the 1930s and told the white-haired man who opened the door:

"Will you show me how to do my homework?"

The world's greatest scientist could have shooed the little girl off, telling her he was at work on a theory to explain the nature of all physical forces in the universe.

But Einstein didn't do that. Instead, he smiled and accepted Addie's chocolate gift. As gently as he could, he said he would love teach her to add and subtract, but that wouldn't be fair to the other girls at school. And he gave her a cookie in return for her fudge.

"She was a very naughty girl," Einstein would later say with his distinctive, hearty chuckle. "Do you know she tried to bribe me with candy?

Source::http://www.capitalcentury.com/1933.html

Einstein::On Education And Socialism

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.

In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child.

The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellowmen in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism.

Einstein::Speech in Newyork(Dec 1945)

Physicists find themselves in a position not unlike that of Alfred Nobel. Alfred Nobel invented an explosive more powerful than any then known-an exceedingly effective means of destruction. To atone for this 'accomplishment' and to relieve his conscience, he instituted his awards for the promotion of peace.
Today, the physicists who participated in producing the most formidable weapon of all time are harassed by a similar feeling of responsibility, not to say guilt. As scientists, we must never cease to warn against the danger created by these weapons; we dare not slacken in our efforts to make the peoples of the world, and especially their governments, aware of the unspeakable disaster they are certain to provoke unless they change their attitude toward one another and recognize their responsibility in shaping a safe future. We helped create this new weapon in order to prevent the enemies of mankind from achieving it first; given the mentality of the Nazis, this could have brought about untold destruction as well as the enslavement of the peoples of the world.

This weapon was delivered into the hands of the American and the British nations in their roles as trustees of all mankind, and as fighters for peace and liberty; but so far we have no guarantee of peace nor of any of the freedoms promised by the Atlantic Charter. The war is won, but the peace is not.

Einstein::Political Activities

Einstein supported a number of political causes that branded him a radical in the eyes of many in the U.S. government.

He wrote of his support for socialism, for example, and described capitalism as "economic anarchy". Such statements, combined with his advocacy of nuclear disarmament and civil rights, made Einstein a highly controversial figure in the 1950s, when the House Committee on Un-American Activities and Senator Joseph McCarthy were accusing many of being Communists. Indeed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation amassed a file with almost 1,500 pages of information on Einstein's allegedly subversive political activities.

Einstein never backed down from his beliefs, however—and always emphasized the importance of intellectual freedom.

"I have never been a Communist," he said. "But if I were, I would not be ashamed of it."

Einstein despaired over the effects of McCarthy accusion :

"The current investigations are an incomparably greater danger to our society than those few Communists in our country ever could be. These investigations have already undermined to a considerable extent the democratic character of our society."

source::http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/global/mccarthy.php

Einstein::Was A Communist Spy ?

Although the United States and the Soviet Union were WORLD WAR II allies against the Nazis, many in America were deeply suspicious of the Communist country. As the tensions of the Cold War deepened, fear of Communism reached its peak in the early 1950s.

The U.S. Congress, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, conducted witch-hunts in search of Communist sympathizers.

The accused had two options. They could refuse to testify —and risk losing their jobs and friends. Or they could cooperate and accuse friends and colleagues of being Communists. At the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by J. Edgar Hoover, monitored citizens' activities, searching for "subversive" behavior.
Einstein and his leftist political convictions attracted the attention of the U.S. government as early as the 1930s. Denounced as a Communist spy and watched by the FBI, Einstein persisted in publicly criticizing McCarthyism as a dangerous threat to democracy and freedom of expression.

Einstein Or Newton::Who Was Right?

Before 1905, when Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity, most people believed that space and time were as Sir Isaac Newton described them back in the 17th century: Space was the fixed, unchanging "stage" upon which the great cosmic drama unfolded, and time was the mysterious, universal "clock in the sky."

Even today, people commonly assume that this intuitive sense of space and time is correct. It's not.
Einstein's 1905 paper, along with another one he published in 1915, painted an entirely different and mind-bending picture.

Space itself is constantly being warped and curved by the matter and energy moving within it, and time flows at different rates for different observers. Numerous real-world experiments over the last 100 years indicate that, amazingly, Einstein was right.

source::http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/28mar_gamma.htm

Einstein::Was A Religious Man?

Einstein's Thought On God::

“The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.

He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion.

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.

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.”

Albert Einstein, "The World as I See It", Secaucus, New Jersy: The Citadel Press, 1999, p. 5.

An Essay By Einstein

"How strange is the lot of us mortals!

Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it.

But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based 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 and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities.

I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."
"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle.

I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion.

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

source::http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/einstein/essay.htm

Einstein's Revolution

He was daring, wildly ingenious, passionately curious. He saw a beam of light and imagined riding it; he looked up at the sky and envisioned that space-time was curved.

Albert Einstein reinterpreted the inner workings of nature, the very essence of light, time, energy and gravity. His insights fundamentally changed the way we look at the universe—and made him the most famous scientist of the 20th century.

We know Einstein as a visionary physicist, but he was also a passionate humanitarian and anti-war activist. Born a German Jew, Einstein truly considered himself a citizen of the world. His celebrity status enabled him to speak out—on global issues from pacifism to racism, anti-Semitism to nuclear disarmament. "My life is a simple thing that would interest no one," he once claimed.

But in fact, his letters, notebooks and manuscripts tell a dramatically different story.
Einstein saw the universe as a puzzle, and he delighted in trying to solve its mysteries. All he needed to contemplate the cosmos was his most valuable scientific tool—his imagination.

May 29, 1919
A solar eclipse turns Einstein into an international hero.

Isaac Newton's 17th-century description of gravity became obsolete as the clouds parted on May 29, 1919, and the Sun and Moon aligned in an eclipse. Images of known stars confirmed what Einstein's "General Theory of Relativity" predicted: the Sun's gravity acts like a lens and deflects light from distant stars, making them appear in new locations.

source::http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/revolution/index.php

Einstein::A World Citizen

Einstein's passionate commitment to the cause of global peace led him to support the creation of a single, unified world government.

Einstein thought that patriotic zeal often became an excuse for violence: "As a citizen of Germany," he wrote in 1947, "I saw how excessive nationalism can spread like a disease, bringing tragedy to millions." To combat this "disease," Einstein wanted to eliminate nationalistic sentiments—first by erasing the political borders between countries and then by instituting an international government with sovereignty over individual states.

During World War I, Einstein supported the formation of the "United States of Europe."

He later endorsed the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations. But Einstein worried that the United Nations did not have enough authority to ensure world peace.

Einstein himself seemed to have little regard for national boundaries.

His true allegiance was simply to the human race: "I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss , and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever."