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Birth
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, into a liberal, secular, and bourgeois German Jewish family. -
German No More
In 1895, Einstein, aged sixteen, renounced his German citizenship and moved to Switzerland. His main reason was to avoid military service and also to complete his education at Zurich’s Polytechnic Institute. There he eventually earned his Ph.D. in a climate relatively free of the anti-Semitism that pervaded German and Austrian universities -
Trip to the United States
“I have, for the first time, seen a happy and healthy society whose members are fully absorbed in it.”
—Albert Einstein --- To Michele Besso, May 24, 1924. -
Sex Ed
“Regarding sex education: no secrets!”
—Albert Einstein --- To the World League for Sexual Reform -
Peace
“I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace…. Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe, such as war?”
—Albert Einstein --- From an interview 1931. Reprinted in Einstein on Peace, 125 -
Education
“The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.”
—Albert Einstein --- From Address -
No Jewish State
"Our Debt to Zionism", he said: "I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain—especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to -
Bomb
In 1939, at the urging of the physicist and fellow refugee from the Nazis, Leo Szilard, Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt to warn about German advances in nuclear research and the prospect that they might develop an atomic weapon. The letter led to the U.S. effort to build such a bomb. It remains Einstein’s most remembered public act. However, a combination of government fear of Einstein’s radicalism and his own reluctance kept Einstein from having any role in the Manhattan Project. -
America
He became an American citizen. -
Racism
My trip to this institution was in behalf of a worthwhile cause. There is a separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it. -
Deterrence
In 1947, Einstein wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly arguing that the United States should not try to pursue an atomic monopoly, and instead should equip the United Nations with nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of maintaining deterrence -
The World As I See It
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor - not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an edu -
Out of My Later Years
One strength of the Communist system ...is that it has some of the characteristics of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion. -
Jewish People
“My relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.”
—Albert Einstein --- Statement to Abba Eban, November 18,1952 -
Weapons
“The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack.”
—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in interview with A. Aram, January 3, 1953.
