It’s the birthday of theoretical physicist, humanist, and philosopher Albert Einstein (1879–1955.)
Einstein was born to Jewish parents in Ulm, Germany, in 1879. Encouraged by his uncle, Einstein started studying mathematics at school. He was an average student and his teachers predicted that he would never amount to much in life. He did not succeed in his first attempt at the entrance exam to a technical college at age 16.
Einstein barely made it through college and could not get a job in several science fields. He eventually joined the Swiss Patents Office in Bern as an examiner of patent applications and wrote scientific papers during his time off.
In 1905, at age 26, Einstein published four papers on the Special Theory of Relativity. These papers broke new ground in physics and included the legendary relation between mass and energy: E = mc-squared. In 1916, he published his work on the General Theory of Relativity. However, it was his work on the photoelectric effect that won Einstein the Nobel Prize in 1921.
Einstein immigrated to America in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 and pursued an academic career at Princeton University. He died in 1955.
Einstein is best known for revolutionizing twentieth-century physics with his theories of relativity and contributions to photoelectric effect and the unification of the laws of physics. He was also a passionate humanist and advocated peace, political freedom, and social justice.
For more on Albert Einstein, I recommend Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography or DK Publishing’s biography. Also worth reading are Einstein’s “The World As I See It,” and his “Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions” with Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” This quote initiated my interest in inspirational quotes. My collection now includes 120,000 quotes.
Inspirational Quotations by Albert Einstein
You never fail until you stop trying.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
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.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count, really count.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives, and not in what he is able to receive.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
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 senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. 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.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)
The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.
—Albert Einstein (German-born Theoretical Physicist)