[ 1879 - 1955 ]

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe , a part limited in time and space.

We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest.

A kind of optical delusion of 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 the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty...

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."

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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."

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"Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied:
"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.""

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"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."

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"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."

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

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Belief and Knowledge [ Newton - 1900's ]

During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief.

The opinion prevailed amoung advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed.

According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively

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God doesn't play dice.

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God may be subtle, but He isn't plain mean.

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"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."

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Gravitation can not be held resposible for people falling in love"

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The first step in the setting of a 'real external world

I believe that the first step in the setting of a 'real external world' is the formation of the concept of bodily objects and of bodily objects of various kinds. Out of the multitude of our sense experiences we take, mentally and arbitrarily, certain repeatedly occurring complexes of sense impression (partly in conjunction with sense impressions which areinterpreted as signs for sense experiences of others), and we attribute to them a meaning the meaning of the bodily object. Considered logically this concept is not identical with the totality of sense impressions referred to; but it is an arbitrary creation of the human (or animal) mind. On the other hand, the concept owes its meaning and its justification exclusively to the totality of the sense impressions which we associate with it."

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Imagination is more important than knowledge.

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"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

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

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

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If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

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

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"If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants."

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"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
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"Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends.

But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends.

To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to form in the social life of man".

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The Nature and Authority of Fundamental Ends

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

If one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and justifed merely by reason, one can only answer: they exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions, which act upon the conduct and aspirations and judgements of the individuals; they are there, that is, as something living, without its being necessary to find justification for their existence.

They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities.

One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly."

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Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else
-- unless it is an enemy.

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Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life

on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

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Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

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Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT's relativity

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Science

"Science is the century-old endeavour to bring together by means of systematic thought the perceptible phenomena of this world into as thorough-going an association as possible.

To put it boldly, it is the attempt at a posterior reconstruction of existence by the process of conceptualisation.

Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgements of all kinds remain necessary."

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

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The cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research. No one who does not appreciate the terrific exertions and above all, the devotion without which pioneer creations in scientific thought cannot come into being, can judge the strength of the feeling out of which alone such work, turned away as it is from immediate practical life, can grow.

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

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

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"The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one."

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"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

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Through the release of atomic energy, our generation has brought into the world the most revolutionary force since prehistoric man's discovery of fire. This basic force of the universe cannot be fitted into the outmoded concept of narrow nationalisms.
For there is no secret and there is no defense; there is no possibility of control except through the aroused understanding and insistence of the peoples of the world. We scientists recognise our inescapable responsibility to carry to our fellow citizens an understanding of atomic energy and its implication for society. In this lies our only security and our only hope - we believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.
A. Einstein, 1947 d.C.

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Living Things

We have penetrated far less deeply into the regularities obtaining within the realm of living things, but deeply enough nevertheless to sense at least the rule of fixed necessity ..... what is still lacking here is a grasp of the connections of profound generality, but not a knowledge of order itself.

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"What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world."

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Watch the stars, and from them learn.

To the Master's honor all must turn, each in its track,

without a sound,forever tracing Newton's ground.

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You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."

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Watzenborner Weg 7/ Zi 711
D-35394 Giessen, Germany