The World as I See It

by Albert Einstein

In the case of political, and even of religious, leaders, it is often very doubtful whether they have done more good or harm.

The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self.

It has been said very justly that Graeco-Europeo-American culture as a whole, and in particular its brilliant flowering in the Italian Renaissance, which put an end to the stagnation of mediaeval Europe, is based on the liberation and comparative isolation of the individual.

Compulsory military service seems to me the most disgraceful symptom of that deficiency in personal dignity from which civilized mankind is suffering to-day. No wonder there is no lack of prophets who prophesy the early eclipse of our civilization. I am not one of these pessimists; I believe that better times are coming.

Money only appeals to selfishness and always tempts its owners irresistibly to abuse it.

The only rational way of educating is to be an example-of what to avoid, if one can’t be the other sort.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it.

A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people.

His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire.

In times of crisis people are generally blind to everything outside their immediate necessities.

for the world is to-day more than ever in need of international thinking and feeling by its leading nations and personalities, if it is to progress towards a better and more worthy future.

It is at last beginning to be realized that great wealth is not necessary for a happy and satisfactory life.

The last war has shown that there are no longer any barriers between the continents and that the destinies of all countries are closely interwoven.

In these days of democratic government the fate of the nations hangs on themselves;

We all feel that the free play of economic forces, the unregulated and unrestrained pursuit of wealth and power by the individual, no longer leads automatically to a tolerable solution of these problems.

That is why I began by telling you that the fate of the human race was more than ever dependent on its moral strength to-day. The way to a joyful and happy state is through renunciation and self-limitation everywhere.

I regard it as the chief duty of the State to protect the individual and give him the opportunity to develop into a creative personality.

The introduction of compulsory service is therefore, to my mind, the prime cause of the moral collapse of the white race, which seriously threatens not merely the survival of our civilization but our very existence.

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The possession of marvellous means of production has brought care and hunger instead of freedom.

The individual can accomplish little here, nor can one wish to see the best among us devoted to destruction through the machinery behind which stand the three great powers of stupidity, fear, and greed.

Only a fraction of the available human labour in the world is needed for the production of the total amount of consumption-goods necessary to life.

The logically simplest but also most daring method of achieving this is a completely planned economy, in which consumption-goods are produced and distributed by the community. That, in essentials, is what is being attempted in Russia to-day. Much will depend on what results this mighty experiment produces.

The gold standard has, in my opinion, the serious disadvantage that a shortage in the supply of gold automatically leads to a contraction of credit and also of the amount of currency in circulation, to which contraction prices and wages cannot adjust themselves sufficiently quickly.

I am inclined to the view that the State can only be of real use to industry as a limiting and regulative force.

For whereas formerly it was enough for a man to have freed himself to some extent from personal egotism to make him a valuable member of society, to-day he must also be required to overcome national and class egotism.

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence-these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.

The life of the individual has meaning only in so far as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful.

Judaism is not a creed: the Jewish God is simply a negation of superstition, an imaginary result of its elimination.

Whatever we do for Palestine we do it for the honour and well-being of the whole Jewish people.

It is no easy matter for me to overcome my natural inclination to a life of quiet contemplation.

In this case, as in many mental disorders, the cure lies in a clear knowledge of one’s condition and its causes.

I must add that this is only my personal opinion, which I have discussed with nobody.