Albert Einstein
(1879-1955)

Albert Einstein is one of the most recognized and well-known scientists of the 20th century. His theories solved age-old problems in physics and rocked even non-physicists' view of the world. His special and general theories of relativity are still regarded as the most satisfactory model of the large-scale universe that we have.

From Time Magazine (January 3, 2000), where he was identified as the "Person of the 20th Century":

"He was the embodiment of pure intellect, the bumbling professor with the German accent, a comic icon in a thousand films. Instantly recognizable, like Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Einstein's shaggy-haired visage was as familiar to ordinary people as to the matrons who fluttered about him in salons from Berlin to Hollywood. Yet he was unfathomably profound -- the genius among geniuses who discovered, merely by thinking about it, that the universe was not as it seemed." (To read the complete article please see "Links" below)

In simple language, among other things he showed us that what we thought to be "truly and solidly" real isn't that at all . . . but it is "relatively" real, i.e., it all depends on where you're standing when you look at it.

Quotes

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."

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

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

"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 separated from the rest of mankind as 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."

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labours of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received."

"It is my contention that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity." (Note: there is some scholarly dispute as to whether this quote is accurately attributed to Einstein.)

Links

Albert Einstein online (robust): http://www.westegg.com/einstein/

A biography of Albert Einstein from the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archives: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Einstein.html