Jef's web files - Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Fri, 16 Jan 2004 21:06:19 -0500

Albert Einstein

"...Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion..."

Wed, 03 May 2006 15:38:42 -0400

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. 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 affection for a few persons nearest 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 nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security."

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 16:57:26 -0500

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
- Albert Einstein

"There exists a passion for comprehension, just as there exists a passion for music."

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:55:35 -0500

There exists a passion for comprehension, just as there exists a passion for music. That passion is rather common in children, but gets lost in most people later on. Without this passion, there would be neither mathematics nor natural science. Time and again the passion for understanding has led to the illusion that man is able to comprehend the objective world rationally, by pure thought, without any empirical foundations—in short, by metaphysics. I believe that every true theorist is a kind of tamed metaphysicist, no matter how pure a `positivist' he may fancy himself. The metaphysicist believes that the logically simple is also the real. The tamed metaphysicist believes that not all that is logically simple is embodied in experienced reality, but that the totality of all sensory experience can be `comprehended' on the basis of a conceptual system built on premises of great simplicity. The skeptic will say that this is a `miracle creed.' Admittedly so, but it is a miracle creed which has been borne out to an amazing extent by the development of science.
—Einstein

"...'comprehending,' i.e., reducing phenomena by the process of logic to something already known..."

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:52:06 -0500

What, then, impels us to devise theory after theory? Why do we devise theories at all? The answer to the latter question is simply: because we enjoy `comprehending,' i.e., reducing phenomena by the process of logic to something already known or (apparently) evident. New theories are first of all necessary when we encounter new facts which cannot be `explained' by existing theories. But this motivation for setting up new theories is, so to speak, trivial, imposed from without. There is another, more subtle motive of no less importance. This is the striving toward unification and simplification of the premises of the theory as a whole (i.e., Mach's principle of economy, interpreted as a logical principle).
— Einstein

On formulation of scientific theory

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:48:34 -0500

Something general will have to be said... about the points of view from which physical theories may be analyzed critically... The first point of view is obvious: the theory must not contradict empirical facts... The second point of view is not concerned with the relationship to the observations but with the premises of the theory itself, with what may briefly but vaguely be characterized as the `naturalness' or `logical simplicity' of the premises (the basic concepts and the relations between these)... We prize a theory more highly if, from the logical standpoint, it does not involve an arbitrary choice among theories that are equivalent and possess analogous structures... I must confess herewith that I cannot at this point, and perhaps not at all, replace these hints by more precise definitions. I believe, however, that a sharper formulation would be possible."
— Einstein

"Evolution is proceeding in the direction of increased simplicity of the logical basis."

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:43:42 -0500

Physics constitutes a logical system of thought which is in a state of evolution, whose basis cannot be distilled, as it were, from experience by an inductive method, but can only be arrived at by free invention... Evolution is proceeding in the direction of increased simplicity of the logical basis. In order further to approach this goal, we must resign to the fact that the logical basis departs more and more from the facts of experience, and that the path of our thought from the fundamental basis to those derived propositions, which correlate with sense experiences, becomes continually harder and longer.
— Einstein

"a comprehension, as complete as possible, of the connection between the sense experiences in their totality..."

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:41:18 -0500

The aim of science is, on the one hand, a comprehension, as complete as possible, of the connection between the sense experiences in their totality, and, on the other hand, the accomplishment of this aim by the use of a minimum of primary concepts and relations. (Seeking as far as possible, logical unity in the world picture, i.e., paucity in logical elements.)
— Einstein

"the grand object of all theory to make these irreducible elements as simple and as few in number as possible..."

Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:34:49 -0500

These fundamental concepts and postulates, which cannot be further reduced logically, form the essential part of a theory, which reason cannot touch. It is the grand object of all theory to make these irreducible elements as simple and as few in number as possible... (As) the distance in thought between the fundamental concepts and laws on the one side and, on the other, the conclusions which have to be brought into relation with our experience grows larger and larger, the simpler the logical structure becomes—that is to say, the smaller the number of logically independent conceptual elements which are found necessary to support the structure.
— Einstein

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion."

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:09:38 -0500

"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both natural and spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism."
-Albert Einstein

"The unleased power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking..."

Sat, 31 Jan 2004 17:22:40 -0500

"The unleased power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
- Albert Einstein

"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second."

Sat, 20 Sep 2003 11:32:31 -0400

"When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity."
- Albert Einstein
News Chronicle, 14/03/1949

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent..."

Sun, 14 Sep 2003 12:20:27 -0400

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
- Albert Einstein

widening our circles of compassion

Tue, 06 Apr 2004 10:59:38 -0400

A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. 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 affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
- Albert Einstein

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 15:20:47 -0500

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
- Albert Einstein