Understanding: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
Rupert loup (talk | contribs) →E: From Albert Einstein |
|||
Line 45:
* [[Peace]] cannot be kept by [[force]]. It can only be achieved by understanding. You cannot subjugate a nation forcibly unless you wipe out every man, woman, and child. Unless you wish to use such drastic measures, you must find a way of settling your disputes without resort to arms.
** [[Albert Einstein]], in a speech to the New History Society (14 December 1930), reprinted in "Militant Pacifism" in ''Cosmic Religion'' (1931)
* '''One may say "the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."'''
** [[Albert Einstein]], from the article "Physics and Reality" (March 1936), reprinted in ''Out of My Later Years'' (1956). The quotation marks may just indicate that he wants to present this as a new aphorism, but it could possibly indicate that he is paraphrasing or quoting someone else — perhaps [[Immanuel Kant]], since in the next sentence he says "It is one of the great realizations of Immanuel Kant that the setting up of a real external world would be senseless without this comprehensibility."<br /> '''''Other variants:'''''
** '''The eternally incomprehensible thing about the world is its comprehensibility.'''
*** In the endnotes to ''Einstein: His Life and Universe'' by Walter Isaacson, note 46 on [http://books.google.com/books?id=cdxWNE7NY6QC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA628#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 628] says that "Gerald Holton says that this is more properly translated" as the variant above, citing Holton's essay "What Precisely is Thinking?" on p. 161 of ''Einstein: A Centenary Volume'' edited by Anthony Philip French.
** '''The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.'''
*** This version was given in ''Einstein: A Biography'' (1954) by Antonina Vallentin, p. 24, and widely quoted afterwards. Vallentin cites "Physics and Reality" in ''Journal of the Franklin Institute'' (March 1936), and is possibly giving a variant translation as with Holton.
** '''The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.'''
*** As quoted in ''Speaking of Science'' (2000) by Michael Fripp
** '''The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility … The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.'''
*** As quoted in ''Einstein: His Life and Universe'' by Walter Isaacson, [http://books.google.com/books?id=cdxWNE7NY6QC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA462#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 462]. In the original essay "The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle" appears at the end of the paragraph that follows the paragraph in which "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility" appears.
* Both churches and universities — insofar as they live up to their true function — serve the ennoblement of the individual. They seek to fulfill this great task by spreading moral and cultural understanding, renouncing the use of brute force.
Line 53 ⟶ 64:
* You may call me an [[agnostic]], but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional [[atheist]] whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of [[humility]] corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of [[nature]] and of our own being.
** [[Albert Einstein]], in a letter to Guy H. Raner Jr. (28 September 1949), from article by Michael R. Gilmore in ''Skeptic'' magazine, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1997)
==F==
| |||