Within each historical frame the author charts the life and times of one individual who even in the midst of discord finds a way of living fruitfully, of making a profound connection which transcends the uncertainties of his particular age. In ancient Greece the philosopher Epicurus withdrew from Athens to teach inner tranquility ataraxia to his friends.
At the end of the Roman era St. Benedict founded a safe haven at Monte Casino where he created the Rule which offered spiritual security to his monks. With strife all around him Michel Montaigne quit public life and retreated to his Tower to mingle with the great minds of the past. Viewing the desperation drudgery of his fellow citizens, Henry David Thoreau repaired to Walden Pond there to live alone with Nature for almost two years.
In a Europe slowly moving toward war Albert Einstein found refuge in the Cosmos where he could contemplate the laws of the physical universe.
- Top 3 Albert Einstein Quotes With Images!
- In Matters Of Governance - Setting the Scene (The International Sport Administrators Series Book 1).
- Weight Loss Cleansing 101 - A Simple System to Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days.
- Navigation menu?
- Debating Multiculturalism in the Nordic Welfare States (Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series)!
- James Abbott McNeill Whistler - Wikipedia!
- James Abbott McNeill Whistler;
The names of these five individuals are known to the educated general reader. Each of them lived in a different era, discovered a different track. Yet they had one thing in common: They chose neither to grapple with their own society nor directly aid in the coming of the next. They did something more radical: They withdrew - they chose to walk away, to take refuge and follow a path where inner harmony could be attained. They took arms against the troubles of their age not by encounter, but by creative withdrawal.
Epicurus - The Refuge of Philosophy St. Yet a great paradox ensued. Though they withdrew from the society of their times what they accomplished reached far beyond them into the future: Epicurean communities spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and lasted for five hundred years; Benedictine monasticism provided Western Europe with spiritual direction down to the Middle Ages; Montaigne's Essays have found their place among the annals of great literature; Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond - immortalized in his journal, Walden - became the exemplar for living with Nature and a guide for achieving radical simplicity; Einstein's four papers written during his years in a Swiss Patent office would be the foundation for the theories of special and general relativity, as well as quantum physics, all of which would change our view of the universe.
400 Albert Einstein Quotes That Will Move (And Surprise You)
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. Is it not a proper subject for congratulation? Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. 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. If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science. I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. The only thing I did was this: 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. 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.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. When I am judging a theory, I ask myself whether, if I were God, I would have arranged the world in such a way. I believe in intuition and inspiration. At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason. He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
This is one of my favorite Albert Einstein quote. Any fool can know. The point is to understand. The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. Imagination is the highest form of research. Short quotes and one liners for your bio, social status, self-talk, signs, tattoos, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. You never fail until you stop trying.
Make everything as simple as possible , but not simpler. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. A person starts to live when he can live outside himself. You may also like inspirational quotes motivational quotes love quotes happiness quotes life quotes. Each of us has to do his little bit toward transforming this spirit of the times.
Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts. I, an old man, greet you Japanese schoolchildren from afar and hope that your generation may some day put mine to shame. The destiny of civilized humanity depends more than ever on the moral forces it is capable of generating. Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.
As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly important. A theory is the more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more different kinds of things it relates, and the more extended its area of applicability. It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research. A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their superpersonal value.
It gives me great pleasure, indeed, to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed. The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the 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 full in feeling. The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life. 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. 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.
Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible. Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work. Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. There is a race between mankind and the universe. Mankind is trying to build bigger, better, faster, and more foolproof machines. The universe is trying to build bigger, better, and faster fools. So far the universe is winning. After receiving a distinction from Chicago Decalogue Society: How unfortunate a state must a community find itself if it cannot produce a more suitable candidate upon whom to confer such a distinction?
As for the words of warm praise addressed to me, I shall carefully refrain from disputing them. For who still believes that there is such a thing as genuine modesty? I should run the risk of being taken for just an old hypocrite. Do you really believe that you could find permanent happiness through others, even if this be the one and only beloved man? I know this sort of animal personally, from my own experience as I am one of them myself.
Not too much should be expected from them, this I know quite exactly. Today we are sullen, tomorrow high-spirited, after tomorrow cold, then again irritated and half-sick of life. And so it goes. Two things are infinite: The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat. Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. No solid evidence that Einstein said this one.
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.
Albert Einstein Quotes That Will Move (And Surprise You)
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. Those who thoughtlessly make use of the miracles of science and technology, without understanding more about them than a cow eating plants understands about botany, should be ashamed of themselves.
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. No one here at the Technikum is up to date in modern physics? I have already tapped all of them without success. Would I too become so lazy intellectually if I were ever doing well? 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. We all know that light travels faster than sound. To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself. Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it. Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
But then, twilight with its more subdued colors has its charms as well. I soon learned to scent out what was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from everything else, from the multitude of things that clutter up the mind. The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything. A new idea comes suddenly and in a rather intuitive way, but intuition is nothing but the outcome of earlier intellectual experience. 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.
The foundation of morality should not be made dependent on myth nor tied to any authority lest doubt about the myth or about the legitimacy of the authority imperil the foundation of sound judgment and action. 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. Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone — the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.
I no longer need to take part in the competition of the big brains. Participating [in the process] has always seem to me an awful type of slavery no less evil than the passion for money or power. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind. Compassionate people are geniuses in the art of living, more necessary to the dignity, security, and joy of humanity than the discoverers of knowledge.
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I received and am still receiving. The old who have died live on in the young ones. Our death is not an end if we have lived on in our children and the younger generations.
For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. I believe that whatever we do or live for has its causality; it is good, however, that we cannot see through to it. 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. This life is not such that we ought to complain when it comes to and end for us or for a loved one; rather, we may look back in satisfaction when it has been bravely and honorably withstood.
I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an undue amount of the labor of my fellow-men. I am glad that you have given me the opportunity of expressing to you here my deep sense of gratitude as a man, as a good European, and as a Jew. People like you and I, though mortal of course, like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is that we never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifest itself in nature.
My mother died a week ago today in terrible agony. We are all completely exhausted. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought. May they not forget to keep pure the great heritage that puts them ahead of the West: What depressed me most is, of course, the misfortune of my poor parents who have not had a happy moment for so many years.
What further hurts deeply is that as an adult man, I have to look on without being able to do anything. The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensable precondition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself it is not enough. In order to be content, men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accords with their personal characteristics and abilities. I just read a wonderful paper by Lenard on the generation of cathode rays by ultraviolet light.
Under the influence of this beautiful piece, I am filled with such happiness and joy that I absolutely must share some of it with you. Human beings can attain a worthy and harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within the limits of human nature, of striving to fulfill wishes of the material kind. My mother and sister seem somewhat petty and philistine to me, despite the sympathy I feel for them.
It is interesting how gradually our life changes us in the very subtleties of our soul, so that even the closest of family ties dwindle into habitual friendship. Deep inside we no longer understand one another, and are incapable of actively empathizing with the other, or knowing what emotions move the other. Death is a reality… Life ends definitely when the subject, by his actions, no longer affects his environment… He can no longer add an iota to the sum total of his experience.
Sometimes the only thought that sustains me and is my only refuge from despair is that I have always done everything I could within my small power, and that year in, year out, I have never permitted myself any amusements or diversions except those afforded by my studies. A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? I am a real lone wolf who has never wholeheartedly belonged to the State, to my country, my circle of friends and not even to my family but who, despite all these bonds, has constantly experienced a feeling of strangeness and the need for solitude.
That gives you time to wonder, to search for the truth. Make your life worth living. Although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head. My passionate interest in social justice and social responsibility has always stood in curious contrast to a marked lack of desire for direct association with men and women. I am a horse for single harness, not cut out for tandem or team work. I have never belonged wholeheartedly to country or state, to my circle of friends , or even to my own family.
These ties have always been accompanied by a vague aloofness, and the wish to withdraw into myself increases with the years. When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. Solitude can be tolerated only up to a certain limit, you know. I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.
The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before. I believe in one thing, that only a life lived for others is a life worth living. I simply enjoy giving more than receiving in every respect, to not take myself nor the doings of the masses seriously, am not ashamed of my weaknesses and vices, and naturally take things as they come with equanimity and humor.
Many people are like this, and I really cannot understand why I have been made into a kind of idol. There is far too great a disproportion between what one is and what others think one is, or at least what they say they think one is. But one has to take it all with good humor. Of course, understanding of our fellow-beings is important. But this understanding becomes fruitful only when it is sustained by sympathetic feeling in joy and in sorrow. The cultivation of this most important spring of moral action is that which is left of religion when it has been purified of the elements of superstition.
Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment. Many times a day I realize how much my outer and inner life is based upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how much I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. 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 or merit of my own.
The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up. I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives.
I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously. Without the sense of fellowship with men of like mind, of preoccupation with the objective, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific research, life would have seemed to me empty.
An awareness of my limitations pervades me all the more keenly in recent times because my faculties have been quite overrated since a few consequences of general relativity theory have stood the test. 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. 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. I lack any sentiment of the sort; all I have is a sense of duty toward all people and an attachment to those with whom I have become intimate.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. Each of us visits this Earth involuntarily, and without an invitation. For me, it is enough to wonder at the secrets. Love brings much happiness, much more than pining brings pain. I firmly believe that love [of a subject or hobby] is a better teacher than a sense of duty — at least for me. Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed. Only the though of you gives my life here a true meaning.
When you are my dear little wife, we will zealously do scientific work together, so as not to become old philistines, right? My sister seemed to me so philistine. You must never become like that, it would be awful for me. You must always remain my witch and my street urchin?. If only I could give you some of my happiness, so that you would never be sad and wistful. So I help myself out with what always stays lovely and nice.
I am fond of you, my dear girl, and am looking forward to seeing you again on Sunday. We shall again spend an enchanting cozy day together. I am so lucky to have found you — a creature who is my equal, and who is as strong and independent as I am. Destiny seems to bear some grudge against the two of us. But this will make things all the more beautiful later on, when all obstacles and worries have been overcome. How delightful it was the last time, when I was allowed to press your dear little person to me the way nature created it, let me tenderly kiss you for that, you dear good soul!
Letter to Marie Winteler: As to whether I will be patient? What other choice do I have with my beloved, naughty little angle? I will be doubly happy when I can press you to my heart again and see your loving eyes. When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again. Is it not a lack of real affection that scares me away again and again from marriage. Is it a fear of the comfortable life, or nice furniture, of dishonor that I burden myself with, or even the fear of becoming a contented bourgeois?
Marriage makes people treat each other as articles of property and no longer as free human beings. One must take what nature gives as one finds it. How wretchedly inadequate is the theoretical physicist as he stands before Nature, and before his students. My scientific work is motivated by an irresistible longing to understand the secrets of nature and by no other feelings.
My love for justice and the striving to contribute towards the improvement of human conditions are quite independent from my scientific interests. Look deep into nature , and then you will understand everything better. On if his life was a success: Neither on my deathbed nor before will I ask myself such a question. Nature is not an engineer or a contractor, and I myself am a part of Nature. 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.
Space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind union of the two will preserve an independent reality. A spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.
Покупки по категориям
No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man. See Quote Investigator for the source. I sometimes ask myself how it came about that I was the one to develop the theory of relativity. The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think about problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought about as a child.
What I see is a certain something, desolate and grey as infinity. I do not believe that the structure of the human brain is to be blamed for the fact that man cannot grasp infinity. 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 of nature in its beauty. Failure and deprivation are the best educators and purifiers. I do not much believe in education. Each man ought to be his own model, however frightful that may be. 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; it is that education which in the main is founded upon the desire for successful activity and acknowledgment.
The aim of education must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement. Studying, and striving for truth and beauty in general, is a sphere in which we are allowed to be children throughout life. Never regard your study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn the liberating beauty of the intellect for your own personal joy and for the profit of the community to which your later work will belong.
Schools may favor such freedom by encouraging independent thought. I do not carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think. I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values.
Today also there is an urge toward social progress, toward tolerance and freedom of thought, toward a larger political unity… But the students at our universities have ceased as completely as their teachers to embody the hopes and ideals of the people. The most valuable thing a teacher can impart to children is not knowledge and understanding per se but a longing for knowledge and understanding, and an appreciation for intellectual values, whether they be artistic, scientific, or moral.