Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

"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."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

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

"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

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

"The only real valuable thing is intuition."

"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."

"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."

"God is subtle but he is not malicious."

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

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

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

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

"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."

"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."

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

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

"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."

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

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."

"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."

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

"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."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

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

"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."

"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."

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

"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."

"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."

"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."

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

"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."

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."

"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."

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

"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."

"...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."

"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."

"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."

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)

Ber-Tuhan ala Einstein


Oleh Husein Ja’far Al Hadar


Dengan determenisme dan kausalitas ketat yang menjadi konsekuensi logis atas konsep Tuhan Impersonal ala Einstein, maka naluri serta tanggung jawab sosial-ekologis manusia akan terdongkrak. Sebab, bayang-bayang akan bencana ekologis dan kemanusiaan setidaknya akan memberikan bayangan buruk sekaligus pertimbangan signifikan bagi setiap individu yang hendak mengeksploitasi alam maupun manusia. Terlebih, sebagaimana ditegaskan Einstein, tujuan tertinggi dari ketaatan beragama tak lain adalah keselarasan sempurna dengan alam semesta, termasuk manusia di dalamnya.

Pada tahun 1940, Albert Einstein menulis sebuah esai menggemparkan berjudul Science and Religion. Esai itu sontak menggoreskan berbagai kontroversi, khususnya di kalangan agamawan dan teolog. Pasalnya, melalui esai itu, Einstein menggusur konsep Tuhan yang telah dibangun oleh para teolog sejak berabad-abad silam. Einstein kemudian menyebut Tuhan ala teolog itu sebagai Tuhan Personal yang tampak begitu kerdil baginya.

Einstein menyikapi konsep Tuhan Personal ala teolog itu secara apatis. Dalam pandangannya, Tuhan Personal itu ternilai terlalu sederhana dan dangkal. Baginya, konsep Tuhan ala para teolog itu justru menggerogoti transendensi Tuhan seiring dilekatkannya simbol-simbol, bentuk (morphe) serta kecenderungan kemanusiaan (pathos) untuk menggapai Yang Transenden itu.
Sebelumnya, pada tahun 1929, setelah membaca dan terpengaruh oleh hipotesa Spinoza dalam karyanya yang berjudul Ethics, Einstein sejatinya telah mulai memaparkan kritikannya pada konsep Tuhan Personal ala para teolog itu. Saat itu pula, Kardinal O’Connell, Uskup Agung Boston, memberikan respon negatif ofensif dengan meneriakkan kepada Jemmaat New England Catholic Club Amerika agar tak membaca apapun tentang teori relativitas. Dengan alasan, teori tersebut merupakan sebuah spekulasi kabur yang menghasilkan keraguan universal tentang Tuhan dan ciptaan-Nya. Menurutnya, teori itu tak lain merupakan selubung hantu ateisme yang mengerikan (New York Times, 25 April 1929).

Mendengar pernyataan serta sikap keras yang ditempuh oleh Uskup Agung tersebut, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein dari The Institutional Sinagoge di New York bertanya pada Einstein melalui telegram; “Apakah Anda percaya Tuhan?” Einstein pun menjawab; “Saya percaya pada Tuhan-nya Spinoza yang menampakkan diri-Nya dalam harmoni keteraturan atas keseluruhan yang ada. Bukan sosok Tuhan yang menyibukkan diri-Nya dengan nasib dan tindakan-tindakan manusia”. Dan, membaca jawaban Einstein tersebut Rabbi Goldstein pun menegaskan bahwa tuduhan ateis pada Einstein jelas-jelas tak terbukti.
Adapun setelah esai 1940 yang berisi pemaparan cukup komprehensif tentang kritiknya atas Tuhan-nya teolog dan konsep Tuhan Impersonal-nya itu terbit, ia pun sontak mendapat serangan serempak dari mayoritas teolog –khususnya teolog Yahudi ortodoks- dengan kekuatan dogma kafir dan ateis. Namun, Einstein selalu menegaskan bahwa dirinya bukanlah seorang ateis. Bahkan, ia ternilai memiliki konsep Tuhan yang jauh lebih mentransendensikan-Nya.
Terpengaruh dari Spinoza, setelah menggusur konsep Tuhan Personal-nya para teolog, Einstein menggagas konsep Tuhan Impersonal. Dalam pandangannya, Tuhan merupakan Kecerdasan Tertinggi yang menampakkan dirinya dalam harmoni dan keindahan alam. Dia tidaklah ber-’sosok’. Tuhan adalah struktur pengatur kosmis yang impersonal. Baginya, sesuatu yang oleh Injil disebut sebagai aktifitas Ilahi tak lain semacam hukum ketentuan alam. Sedangkan sesuatu yang disebut sebagai kehendak Tuhan tak lain adalah hukum alam. Tuhan-nya Einstein itu merupakan entitas abstrak sebagaimana diungkapkan Injil; “Janganlah kamu membuat patung berhala atas-Nya atau keserupaan dengan macam-macam benda”. (Eksodus 20:4)
Terlepas dari sederetan kontroversinya, pada dasarnya konsep Tuhan ala Einstein tersebut akan semakin mendewasakan keber-tauhid-an dan keberagamaan manusia. Pasalnya, pertama, konsep Tuhan ala Einstein akan relatif menjaga transendensi Tuhan. Sebab, konsep tersebut ternilai akan selalu menjauhkan Tuhan dari simbol, bentuk (morphe) maupun kecenderungan kemanusiaan (pathos) yang dapat menggiring Tuhan pada ‘jurang’ imanensi, sebagaimana kerap terjadi pada Tuhan-nya para teolog. Kedua, konsep agama kosmis yang lahir dari ‘rahim’ Tuhan Impersonal secara tidak langsung akan memacu kedewasaan manusia dalam beragama. Sebab, dalam konsep agama kosmis, rasionalitas dan kebebasan memiliki ruang ekspresi yang lebih leluasa dan terjunjung tinggi. Dalam agama kosmis, Tuhan bukanlah ‘sosok’ yang selalu mengikat dan menjajah manusia di bawah kehendak-Nya. Sebagaimana ditegaskan Einstein, dalam agama kosmis, Tuhan bukanlah ‘sosok’ yang kehendak-Nya seperti kehendak dalam diri setiap manusia; mutlak bagi setiap diri manusia. Sehingga, dalam konsep agama kosmis ala Einstein, setiap manusia memiliki ruang kebebasan dan berkehendaknya sendiri. Ketiga, dengan determenisme dan kausalitas ketat yang menjadi konsekuensi logis atas konsep Tuhan Impersonal ala Einstein, maka naluri serta tanggung jawab sosial-ekologis manusia akan terdongkrak. Sebab, bayang-bayang akan bencana ekologis dan kemanusiaan setidaknya akan memberikan bayangan buruk sekaligus pertimbangan signifikan bagi setiap individu yang hendak mengeksploitasi alam maupun manusia. Terlebih, sebagaimana ditegaskan Einstein, tujuan tertinggi dari ketaatan beragama tak lain adalah keselarasan sempurna dengan alam semesta, termasuk manusia di dalamnya.
Akhirnya, merujuk pada konsep Tuhan ala Einstein, sejatinya ber-Tuhan bukan berarti menafikan eksistensi diri dan menyerahkan seluruh kehendak dan kebebasan kita pada Tuhan secara mutlak. Namun, sebagaimana ditegaskan Einstein, ber-Tuhan sejatinya justru harus ber-‘metamorfosis’ menjadi semangat dan tuntutan untuk selalu berupaya keras melalui pengetahuan rasional secara bebas untuk mencapai hakikat-Nya. Bukan dengan rasa takut-terikat maupun keyakinan yang buta. Wallahu a’lam

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