Ruderalisman Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I stumbled upon this list of his quotes, I really like the way he thinks! Albert said... hope you like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberry Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I hate sites like that. Most of the quotes are taken out of context. And some just badly formed. Look at the 2nd quote: "The important thing is not to stop questioning. " Would Einstein really say something in such a sloppy way? What is the important thing then? (I wonder if it was scribed by a non-native speaker who was confused about the concept of splitting infinitives.) My main gripe is that his comments about God are so removed from their context. His comments about God relate to the breakdown of Superposition and the implementation of probability. Einstein also wrote "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this". (To the philospher Eric Gutkind.) At the very least quotes should be dated. Einstein lived a long time and few people hold the same opinions for such a long period. If the quotes are ordered chronologically then there will almost always be a lot of contradiction unless you edit the choice of quotes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruderalisman Posted March 27, 2009 Author Share Posted March 27, 2009 I think i'll stick to the grow forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberry Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Sorry. You just caught a grumpy old git in a particularly grumpy mood. You definitely shouldn't let someone like me put you off posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blayz'd Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 That man was a pure genius. I read quotes often. Easy to consume knowledge in that form. Rarely easy to really understand it. It's like a whole books worth of knowledge in a single sentence. I love quotes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberry Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weed_G Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 couple of my favourites, some people claim he didn't actually say the 2nd quote, but I like it anyway because its true: I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones. If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazi Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 afaik, when asked what the most powerful thing in the universe was, he replied 'Compound interest'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Culchi Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 "I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh Gee Kush Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 "A human being is a part of a 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 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." -Albert Einstein "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."-Albert Einstein. these two are my favorite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blayz'd Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity. If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one. Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form. I don't have a best Einstein quote. They're all top quality thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawberry Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 These lightweight quotes don't demonstrate anything of the reason why he is regarded so highly. And why Einstein and not Bohr, Feynman, Dirac or any of the other really smart guys? I wish people would try the books rather than just the quotes.... (Young kids today, bah humbug etc....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 He was a genius. In a very specific field. Quotes taken out of context make it like he was a pangenius, a genius in every field. He wasn't. Nobody is. Quotes work for people like Oscar Wilde, cos that's the kind of genius he was, a linguistic genius - a 'wit'. To reduce Einstein to that is to insult the man IMHO (reduce is the wrong word, cos the likes of Wilde were geniuses in their own right, but geniuses in the field of wit and language - that's what they did). Maybe it's because we can understand Einstein's one-liners (out of context), but we can't understand what he actually did ? Sorry, being a pedant, the man said some great stuff, even taken out of context. But to reduce one of the greatest minds of the 20th century to soundbites ? Aw, I'm sorry. I hope you know what I mean without getting hung up on me being a moody cunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randalizer Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I don't think anyone here is reducing the (relative) genius of Einstein by enjoying some bits of his thoughts captured in brief quotes. Instead I feel like we are celebrating the insights of a person who had the time to contemplate many things. Time that many of us do not have as we try to survive and to help raise our families. Thanks for the link Ruderalisman! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blayz'd Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I'll just keep my mouth shut then. Take it easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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