- “Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance, you must keep moving” - “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination
will take you everywhere” - “I have no special talent.
I am only passionately curious”
Just a few of Albert Einstein’s famous quotes.
Einstein is widely acknowledged, for his groundbreaking theory of relativity, as the greatest and
most influential physicist of the 20th century - and the obvious successor to Sir Isaac Newton.
Einstein, who was Jewish, was born in Germany in 1879 and moved around a lot as his father
was unable to secure steady employment.
The family transferred to Italy and later, Albert went on to study in Switzerland and
even became a Swiss National, renouncing his German citizenship.
He excelled in physics and mathematics and though he struggled with other subjects, he
finally received his diploma to teach in 1901.
He struggled to find teaching work, fell in love, had children, married twice, took back
his German (Prussian) status in 1914, only to renounce it once again for political reasons
in 1933, traveled the world, emigrated to America to become a Princeton University Professor
and became a US citizen in 1940.
Though most believe that Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 as a result
of his relativity theory, the reality is that he received it for his discovery of the law
of photoelectric effect.
Even at such a young age, he was writing papers and theories that would change the way we
think about the world for years to come.
Einstein was known for his pacifism.
He was one of the few to object to Hitler’s rising and to publicly declare it by signing
an anti-war manifesto.
Einstein believed that wars stood in the way of human progress, and he condemned violence
and nationalism up until his death at the age of 76 in 1955.
Ironically though, it was Einstein’s most famous equation, E=MC2, that explained how
the energy in an atomic bomb could be released.
Believing that Germany was close to creating such weapons, Einstein warned the US government
and suggested that they get ahead by creating an atomic bomb themselves.
It was this suggestion that ultimately led to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in 1945.
It is noted as Einstein’s biggest regret in life and one that he never really forgave
himself for.
As a result of his calm, pacifist approach, Einstein was even offered the position of
President of Israel in 1952 but turned it down saying that he had “neither the natural
ability nor the experience to deal with human beings”!
The truth was, he could probably foresee that Israel would be led to war and he was not
the man for the job; he still wanted to devote all his time to studying science.
Much is written about Einstein’s IQ, and though there is no concrete evidence that
he was ever actually tested, it is suggested that he would score around 160, falling into
the ‘genius’ category (most people have a general IQ between 85 and 115).
Following his death, numerous tests were carried out on his brain in an attempt to unlock the
secrets of his ingenuity!
It goes without saying that Albert Einstein was a fascinating intellectual, a curious
individual and an absolute leader in his field.
He was close friends with Mahatma Ghandi and Charlie Chaplin, who were also both big pacifists.
He was spied on by the FBI for decades - with all his genius and knowledge, they suspected
he was a subversive or a Soviet spy.
He died of internal bleeding in April 1955, refusing surgery and requesting an elegant
passing, rather than a long, drawn-out, artificial death.
He left all his assets to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel which he had helped
establish and govern back in 1925.