“I fully agree with you about the significance and educational value of methodology as well as history and philosophy of science. So many people today - and even professional scientists - seem to me like somebody who has seen thousands of trees but has never seen a forest. A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is - in my opinion - the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth.
―
Albert Einstein
“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”
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Albert Einstein
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our thinking. Thus, we are drifting toward catastrophe beyond conception. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
―
Albert Einstein
“Don't do anything that goes against your conscience, even if your country says so.”
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Albert Einstein
“When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”
―
Albert Einstein
“My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”
―
Albert Einstein
“This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher"(when asked about completing his income tax form)”
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Albert Einstein
“Ognuno è un genio. Ma se si giudica un pesce dalla sua abilità di arrampicarsi sugli alberi lui passerà tutta la sua vita a credersi stupido.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
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Albert Einstein
“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”
―
Albert Einstein
“The most amazing thing about the world is that we understand it.”
―
Albert Einstein
“If I had known they were going to do this, I would have become a shoemaker.”
―
Albert Einstein