Albert Einstein

These are a few summarizations from my reading of Walter Isaacson Biography of Albert Einstein. I found the book thick at times from all the talk of relativity and science but also found incredibly inspiring and telling. How he cherished freedom of thought and the importance it had on creativity, science, society, art and our world.

Try to learn from a genius to get closer to being one. :)

Quotes:

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

“Accumulation of material should not stifle the student’s independence”

“The human mind sees more sharply than the human eye.”

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

“It is important to foster individuality. For only the individual can produce the new ideas”

“The fundamental requirement of education, is to provide intellectual freedom.”

“Blind respect for authority is the greater enemy of truth.”

“To dwell o the things that depress or anger us does not help in overcoming them. One must knock them down alone. “

“God created donkeys and gave them thick skins.” - Have a thick skin

Work gives us substance to life. Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.

Losing a child - “The deepest sorrow loving parents can experience has come upon you.

Optimism, His thoughts

He was very optimistic in the last days before his death. “Well, we’ve learned somethings today” as the hour clock would tick down.

I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious. He strongly believed in the power imagination and intuition had in science and art.

Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.”

Music can solve all of our difficulties

He thought in pictures

Einstein had an ability to Concentrate. Even in large noisy groups, he could withdraw with pen and paper and compete a problem he had.

The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

Tenacity

• Sticking to a problem for years, in returning to the problem again and again - this is the characteristic feature of Einstein’s genius.

There should be great importance to nurture the inner dignity and individuality of each child. Let students reach their own conclusions.

Visual understanding is essential and only true means of teachings how to judge things correctly.

He believed that people should consider themselves citizens of the world - we all have a personal responsibility.

Let people and kids be free thinkers

Be able to jingle many ideas at the same time

Simplicity

The World loves simplicity

Be flexible in your thinking. He does not remain attached to classical principles and, when presented with a problem in physics, is prompt to envision all the possibilities. He adapts.

Math is nature’s playbook. Math is a tool for discovery.

He would aim for simplicity and beauty, and beauty for him was, after all, essentially simplicity.

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. Nature is the realization of the simplest conceivable mathematical ideas.”

Art

“ART and science is an escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness. Such men make this cosmos and its construction the pivot of their emotional life, in order to find the peace and security which they cannot find in the narrow whirlpools of personal experience.”

The dangers of the loss of freedoms. “ If we want to resist the powers that threaten to suppress intellectual and individual freedom, we must be clear what is at stake. Without freedom there would have been SHAKESPEARE no Goethe, no Newton, no Faraday, no Pasteur, no Lister - Freedom is the foundation of creativity.

Government & Freedoms

Intellectual freedoms - “I’ve always thought that the German universities’ most valuable institution is academic freedom, whereby the lectures are in no way told what to teach, and the students are able to choose what lectures to attend, without much supervision and control.

It is better to build, not tear down.

It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving. And every man may take comfort from the fine saying that the search for truth is more precious than its possession.

“Any Government is evil if it carries within it the tendency to deteriorate into tyranny. The danger of such deterioration is more acute in a country in which the government has authority not only over the armed forces but also over the very channel of education and information as well over the existence of every single citizen”

“Tolerance of free expression of independence of thought he repeatedly argued were the core values that Americans, to his delight most cherished”

“How is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected?”

He was fiercely protective of individual liberties I think cranky about government interference and distrustful of great concentrations of wealth."

He believed in sticking to your guns. - “It gives me great pleasure to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.”

The core of the 1st Amendment was the core of America's cherished freedoms. - First Amendment

• First Amendment Annotated
  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

He equaled McCarthyism to Fascism - a trample on our civil liberties.

He believed in passionately fighting against any kind of dogma based on authority.

The development of science and of the creative activities of the spirit requires a freedom that consists of the independence of thought from the restriction of authoritarian and social prejudice. Nurturing that should be the fundamental role of government and the mission of education.

Creativity requires being willing not to conform. That required nurturing free minds and free spirits, which in turn required a spirit of tolerance. And the underpinning of tolerance was humility. - that no one had the right to impose ideas and beliefs on others.

Death

• “Brief is this existence, as a fleeting visit in a strange house.”

• “The strange thing about growing old is that the intimate identification with the here and now is slowly lost. One feels transposed into infinity, more or less alone.”

• “I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”