Albert Einstein was a great physicist with a profound insight into the workings of the world. But he also had deep insight into the human condition.
“Still there are moments when one feels free from one’s own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being.”
— in a letter to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium.
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate 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.”
— from a letter in 1950
“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self.”
— from his work The World As I See It
Last Updated on May 6, 2014 by
I love these quotes! I was born on his birthday, so my high school physics teacher gave me a T-shirt with his picture, the special and general relativity equations, and my favorite of his short quotes: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Me too, Kira. Thanks for the comment. Cool story. I became more aware of his writing from a beautiful project where his letters to a friend where put to CD as spoken, with gorgeous line drawings. He had some amazing experiences.
I was lame in high school math so avoided physics, only to discover it some years later in university. Had a now famous prof in Quantum Mechanics.
Actually, that prof is interviewed in another article here, if it interests – on physics and spirituality. John Hagelin
https://davidya.ca/2014/01/16/the-physics-of-hagelin/
This one showed up today
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein