Einsteins most genius contributions. In my opinion.

Hello everybody !

I was just filling my time, surfing the net. Guess what I found ? Einstein !

This guy seems to be an absolute genius. His name is legendary and from my point of view, it looks like he is personally responsible for modern day science.

But... This is the philosophy and metaphysics forum and I'm more of a thinker.
That's why I'm not going to name a single scientific achievement from him.

I'm going to post some Einstein phrases and some of them are amazingly relevant for what we here are doing on this site.


Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

1. "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

2."Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

3."A human being is a part of a 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... 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."

4."Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"

5."The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

6."We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

7."The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

8."The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

9."In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."

10."Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

11."A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."

12."He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."

13."...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."

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

15."Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

16."I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

17."One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."

18."Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

19."As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

20."If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

21."The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

22."Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

23."Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

24."Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

25."Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

26."Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

27."Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

28."Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

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

And my personal favourite is,

30."Imagination is more important than knowledge."



Was this man just way ahead of his time ? Or is he just a tool ?
It seems he was confronted with the same modern day problems as we do.

Please tell me your favourite phrase or comment in one. And why you think so.

Of course there are more !
Source

If you miss a quote please post it.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas

What a great way to filling ones time. Never get tired of Einstein. Always "there" to sort out "things". 1. It's a good one.
Thank you for share

Although not the most profound statement, this is my favorite...because it's so true.

27."Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

EDIT:

I like this one too...it's a close second:

12."He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.


[edit on 19-3-2010 by Aggie Man]

reply to post by Aggie Man

27."Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."

I like it to

It actualy counts for every job I think.

12."He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
This one must be teached at school. I agree and feel the same way.

I'll have to ad some more quotes because, well... Einstein was full of them

31.A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
( This one should be a board slogan after Deny ignorance of course.)

32.All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

33.All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.
( Voila ! proof for a secret government atending their own needs ? )

34.Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

35.As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
( One for all the sceptics around here. . )

36.Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

37. Force always attracts men of low morality.

38.I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.

39.I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

40. If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

41.If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Enjoy !

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


You are right Sinter. I enjoy these quotes (particularly 8 &10) and flagged the page to keep them handy. Thanks again for great work..

Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
I'll have to ad some more quotes because, well... Einstein was full of them

41.If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

There was this essay competition in 1930s for an explanation of General Relativity limited to 1000 words. Einstein was asked why he did not take part.
He replied he could not do that in 1000 words.



Shanlung

reply to post by rusethorcain


You are welcome

The ones I like the most are those sounding logical and the right way to do but still we are not able to live by them.

It shows his reasoning ability.

Kind of weird from a man who tenaciously believed for the first 40 years of his career that the Universe WAS NOT expanding despite evidence to the contrary including from his OWN equations !

Can you say LAMBDA ? Talk about wasted energy !

reply to post by shanlung


I'm starting to feel more respect for that man every time I read somthink like it.

To bad he is idolised and worshipped. His rule is law thes days.

Einstein himself had the intelligence and balls to simply admit, he also made mistakes an he was also wrong more then right.

reply to post by Sigismundus


If he enjoyed himself, the time was not wasted. He was just a man doing his thing.

How could you blame him for it. I was not Einstein himself that lifted himself on a pedestal.

Edit.
Maybe you could give me a definition of your understanding of wasted time ?

[edit on 4/29/2010 by Sinter Klaas]

Hi Sinter

When a person in his youth adopts a Weltanschauung (a basic world-view) and sticks with it for a few years THEN is very UNcomforatbly confronted with opposing evidence staring him in the face again and again and again and again and again and again --AND STILL he clings in desperate fear of confusion to his original Weltanschauung --because doing otherwise would crush his whole relationship with his internal world

e.g. ('the Universe simply CAN't be expanding, it can't it can't it can't - that would suggest it had a beginning in time and space ! It can't it can't it just simply can't !! I won't believe it !! Never !! And I'll ADD a LAMBDA into my Equations to MAKE IT SO !!!!! I'll ADD TEN LAMBDAs if I have to !! )

Then spends the next 40+ years getting absolutely nowhere with it - literally going around and around and around and around and around AND AROUND in circular arguments

(like Moses tossing his pair of pagan Urim-Thummim dice-rocks in the Sinai for nearly 40 years to find out where YHWH should have his followers pitch their tents at night)

all the while afraid of looking at all the mounting & incontrovertible evidence in the face (can you say RED SHIFT ?) and when confronted with it, again and again and again, AND STILL denying it...to the laughing sneers of some of his more sophisticated contemporaries, who thought he had lost his initial promise as a scientist I might add----which led him into weird failures of logic (as in the Hole Argument, which he finally finally finally abandoned as fallacious) -

Then THAT IS MY DEFINITION OF A WASTED CAREER that launched itself so auspiciously off the more established shoulders of his predecessors, all of whom were veritable GIANTs in their fields - though rarely spoken about in the literature to-day except among persons in-the-know:

Here are some of the shoulders Einstein stood on top of - and he even admitted it to insiders throughout his life -

e.g. (need I say it?) the great Sir Issac Newton--followed by other predecessors without which Einstein could NOT have done what he did eventually manage to accomplish -

e.g.

Emmanuel Kant (introduced to his works by Max Talmud)
William Kingdon Clifford
Neils Bohr
Max Planck (who gave Einstein the Quantization Hypothesis which allowed Einstein to develop his theories about the Photo-Electric effect & Quantum Theory)
The mathemetician Georg Friedrich Bernhardt Reimann
Budapest born Marcel Grossmann (who taught him Tensor Theory)
Tullio Levy-Civita (whose work on Tensor Theory gave Einstein ideas)
Olinto de Pretto
Antoon Lorentz
Robert Milikan
Alfred Kleiner (with whom he co-wrote some of his Theses)
Ludwig Boltmann
the great James Clerk Maxwell (whose eloquent equations on ElectroMagnetism spurred Einstein's imagination on),
Werner Heisenberg
Robert Brown
Ernst Mach (upon whose work Einstein developed Light Refraction Theory)
Louis deBroglie
and many others including Poincaire, who came up with with formula E=Mc-2 in 1899 - long before Einstein appropriated it !!

And last but not least, perhaps we should also remember his grossly abused first wife - a talented Serbo Croat mathematician (who despite some historian's incessant panicky claims to the contrary, actively helped Einstein formulate some of the more obscure mathematics expressed in his Theory of Relativity in 1905 - and to whom in his Divorce Settlement left his Nobe Prize Money - as being due to her direct assistance - admitting that his 'own mathematical skils were not up to the job')

He even wrote in a letter, "Oh, how happy and proud I will be, when we two together have victoriously brought our joint-work on the theory of relative motion to an end!"

And we also have several drafts of this theory in Maleva Marity's own handwriting testifying that nearly half of the Einstein's output from 1905 had actually derived from her work not his...Fanny Mendelssohn had nothing on this woman !

Read what Albert had written to her, apparently in a good mood that day with her (for once) :

'I am also looking forward very much to OUR new work in progress. You must now pursue your own independent investigations to see where it will lead from here....'

and also: 'I must tell you that Prof. Weber has been very generous to me. . .later I gave the paper that we wrote together...'

Senta Troemel-Ploetz presented a thorough account of Einstein's rather shameless stealing (or more politely, adapting) of Mileva's work and of Mileva's wish (a fairly typical attitude of a Croatian Serb of her generation) not to step forward in any way that might harm her husband's initially fragile reputation -

Danin wrote,

"This failed teacher, who, in search of any income at all, had become a third class engineering expert in the Swiss Patent Office--and YET this completely unknown and obcure Theoretician in 1905 published no less than 3 Grand Scientific Articles in the same Volume of the illustrious 'Annalen der Physik' which was signed 'Einstein-Marity' (or Maric--his first wife's family name)."

What does THAT tell you?

D. S. Danin, Neizbezhnost Strannogo Mira, Molodaia Gvardiia, Moscow, (1962), p. 57. Д. Данин, Неизбежность странного мира, Молодая Гвардия, Москва, (1962), стр. 57

It sure seems like this Einstein chap did a lot more than merely abuse first his wife and childen - if we can believe the evidence in front out OUR eyes. he was nothing less than a plagiarist - and if all the facts were to come out about some of his more sordid sexual affairs (he left more than one illiegitimate bastard at his death) people will probably put his 'complete waste of 40 potentially productive years' completely out of their mind.

After the publication of the 1905 article, Albert Einstein repeatedly stated that he had taken the light postulate of special relativity from Lorentz' theory, and professed that the Lorentz transformation is the "real basis" of the special theory of relativity.

Lorentz had published the Lorentz transformation in near modern form in 1899. Drude featured Lorentz' theories in Drude's famous book of 1900, Lehrbuch der Optik (The Theory of Optics).

The path to the special theory of relativity was paved by Voigt, FitzGerald, Larmor and Lorentz, among others, and Poincare published the modern form of the theory before the Einsteins and Minkowski.

Prof. Anatoly Alexeivich Logunov, former Vice President of the Russian [Soviet] Academy of Sciences and currently Director of the Institute for High Energy Physics, has proven the priority and the superiority of Poincare's formulation of the special theory of relativity over the Einsteins' later and far less sophisticated work.

Poincare pioneered the concept of synchronizing clocks with light signals in his articles and lectures La Mesure du Temps (1898), La Theorie de Lorentz at le Principe de Reaction (1900) and The Principles of Mathematical Physics (1904).

The Einsteins copied this method without giving Poincare credit for the innovation. Poincare stated the principle of relativity in 1895, and in 1905 stated the group properties of the Lorentz Transformation.

It was Poincare, not the Einsteins, who introduced four-dimensional space-time into the theory of relativity. At first, Albert Einstein did not approve of the idea.

The Einsteins learned the formula E = mc^2 from Poincare's 1900 paper.

We sometimes read fictions by writers such as Martinez who postulate a sudden out of the blue Frmulation of the special theory of relativity by Albert Einstein in 1905 - but such a belief (widely held - even by (shock and Awe !) some persons on this thread !!!) does not AT ALL agree with the historic record and documents of the period.

Funny how history can be made up - and heroes too -- if you have key people in scientific circles and in publishing firmly (for whatever reasons) in your corner greasing the skidds !!










[edit on 29-4-2010 by Sigismundus]

reply to post by Sigismundus


Wow Sigismundus ! Talking about being passionate.

Respect

Well... I knew all his work was based on the work of others and that he used work of others.

Plagiarism is new for me and so is abusing his wife and kids.
Planck, Bohr, Lorentz and others were years before him. Lets include Nicholas Tesla.

But still these accusations make him even more human and he must have had some friends that out and kept him on a pedistal.

The thread is about quotes on mostly human life and experience.
I don't understand one bit from all the science.

And what you say is true. The winner always writes the history books.

Talking about that. I've started translating a multiple part article and its all about who writes the history books.

From the Knights Templars and there ties to Free Masonry. And the Black Nobility and there ties to the royal families of Europe and to Free Masonry. The Jews and their origins. Right up into the mess we seem to be in today.

If you are interested, you can read it in this thread The world as a hostage.
Part 2 is also finished

About Einstein.
I'm really sorry but I've got to ask. What is called a lambda ?

Thank you for your reply. I learned something new today.

Hi Sinter

The LAMBDA is the infamous 'Einstein Cosmological Constant' (a Greek Letter he placed into his sometimes cumbersome Equations to force the mathematical models of his own idea of the 'steady state Universe NOT to expand outwards-- as it really is doing in actual fact)

He later confessed, after holding on to the idea for more than 40 years of a 'Steady State' view of a 'non-expandidng' Universe --despite the evidence from Red Shifting stars in telescopes --that 'it was the greatest BLUNDER in my entire life...and I have made a lot of them, let me tell you...'

But people don't want to hear that Einstein was wrong. They always want to hear that he was right. But as famous as he was, that was not always the case...

In fact, although no one quibbles with some of the great advances he was able to elucidate (albeit with lots of help from his predecessors and his colleagues) in cosmology and quantum mechanics, he admitted on several occasions that he was wrong more than he was right.

But people (and several posters on this thread ! ) tend to idol-worship other people that they tend to place on boxes (er...pedestals) - as if people need someone to look up to - or worship as a god.

And the publishing community in America especially (aka the New York Crowd) up until fairly recently had a far too great an influence on shaping this man's legacy to the detriment of both the facts of history and to the many people who never received credit for things they themselves discovered - but were shunted aside.

As you say, 'history is written by the winners' - and is only a vague personal construct of the past as it really happened - and not pure not positivistic 'fact'

And ANY arrangement of the 'facts' from the past presupposes an arranger - i.e. a person who chooses what to SIFT OUT from what HE is able to gather in terms of raw material -- and it is the writer's highlights that make up what comes to eventually be regarded as 'as history' (i.e. 'story') from a vast amount of raw data/facts, many of which the 'historian' may never be able to find in the first place.

Einstein's reputation (and people's view of the man as a man) would be VASTLY different today if his first wife was able to write an honest and fairly detailed memoire outlining her exact contributions to her husband's later publications.

And Albert Einstein is certainly by no means the only person in history who had often been given credit for accomplishments that rightfully should be shared with (or given to) others--although in many cases, it is the laziness of the masses that often allows mis-statements of facts and untoward emphases to go unchecked and un-contested.

But hopefully, with the expansion of this wonderful thing we call the INTERNET, these things can be brought back (we hope !) into a more historically correct focus - where people can see not only the oft repeated 'accomplishments' of famous men and women, but also their foibles, insecurities, superstitions and other previously unreleased data about their private lives that will help future generations see them 'in the round' or as Samuel Johnson used to say, 'warts and all....'





[edit on 29-4-2010 by Sigismundus]

reply to post by Sigismundus


Thanks !

I've heard about 'Einstein Cosmological Constant'. Never knew it was called Lambda tho.

And the publishing community in America especially (aka the New York Crowd) up until fairly recently had a far too great an influence on shaping this man's legacy to the detriment of both the facts of history and to the many people who never received credit for things they themselves discovered - but were shunted aside.

Yes. Cursed capitalism and selvish greed.

I verry much agree with you and I'll hope the internet will be a gatway to the truth. It has already poven to be succesfull in spreading lies.

Thank your effort to explain yourself. Almost never happens.