ALBERT EINSTEIN

This quotation is very frequently misattributed to Albert Einstein as it was published in an interview with the great physicist. However, in the conversation, Einstein attributed it to Montague.

In almost every age and with each new advancement of science there have been those experts, acknowledged or self-styled, who have maintained that the advancement was not valid, useless or prematurely stated. Even Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was subjected to attack long after it had essentially been established.

There have always been critics and scientists differing on the most significant findings of science. Even as late as 1931, there were those who would oppose Relativity.

He had publicly been criticizing Hitler and the Nazis in their early years and his wife was concerned that he might be physically attacked. The Queen of Belgium actually assigned bodyguards to protect him. Finally, with a price on his head, he escaped Germany and came to America.

Life listed prominent people who they classified as ‘dupes’ of the communist conspiracy and ‘fellow travelers’, those who associated with ‘communists.’ Ironically, when Einstein was a young man in Berlin, he was one of the few prominent people in Germany who spoke out against the German militarism and the rush to War (WWI). Then he was also referred to as a dupe and a fellow traveler of the English and Americans. Einstein was particularly outspoken against racism and segregation at a time when many Southern, racial conservatives accused all opponents of segregation of being communists or carrying the communist line.

They were both concerned about the McCarthyism that was developing in America. Einstein was a very outspoken foe of racism. In the context of the political intimidation of the time, it was seen by many as a very courageous thing for Einstein to meet with Robson who was an overt admirer of Russia and their Communist system which did not appear to have the segregation and racism of American Capitalism. However, Einstein—historically an academic intellectual—tended to meet with everyone of any persuasion and to try and persuade them as to his views. He had opposed many of the the policies of the German government when he lived there, and the “risk” in America was far less than he had experienced before. Einstein had no ambitions other than scientific, so McCarthy could not really destroy him as he had many others.

Gross and the Nazi official party line completely rejected what some called “Jewish Science” the new world of Theoretical Physics that had grown out of Einstein’s early 20th century work. Although Einstein and most of the great German physicists fled Germany for America, England and Scandinavia, there were Heisenberg and enough left that Germany was probably capable of development of an atomic weapon. But since such a weapon would have been based on politically unacceptable “Jewish science,” no one would dare suggest it seriously. Ironically, Gross actually thought that The Theory of Relativity was only a theory which by that time, it was not and had been validated by physicists the world over—including Germany. The German scientists were directed at traditional German technology to develop jet airplanes and long range rockets, both of which they developed successfully. It was however too late to make a difference, and if these weapons were strong enough to defend Germany from invasion, the first Atomic bombs would have been dropped on Germany as that was the plan and the major purpose of development. Only the collapse of Germany under the allied attacks, moved the target from Germany to Japan.

He worked with Electricity and was not up on Einstein’s Relativity. Had he been, he would have realized as some other physicists did, that matter and energy were really the same and could be converted from one to the other. The original Atomic Bomb converted matter into huge amounts of Energy. Tesla was one of the great American immigrant scientists. He found in America the kind of intellectual and operational freedom that did not exist in the rigid, monarch-controlled, Austro-Hungarian Empire. He developed patents and techniques that formed the technological bases of radio, telephone long distance, TV, cell phones, Wi Fi, just to name a few. Most important he was Thomas Edison’s great nemesis. Edison invented DC electric generators that could power factories or entire streets in a neighborhood. Tesler invented and developed AC electrical technology which could power entire cities and he could move electricity over long distances which Edison could not. Tesler was one of the first scientists to conceive of and try to implement “Big Science” where there were huge capital investments to develop machines and systems to do what had never been done before—philosophically like the CERN Hadron Collider. Tesler even convinced a large corporation to finance the construction of a massive building and tower so he could experiment with the wireless transmission of electricity. However, as the industrial democracies have learned, Big Science can only be funded by governments and it often takes sever working in consort to afford the huge investment that is required. In Tesler’s era, the federal and state governments did not fund scientific research so his work was not only technically ahead of his time but also conceptually. He anticipated most of the problems and need for a national power grid that was challenging America even at the beginning of the 21st century.

See {629746} for his statement.

This is a very interesting philosophical and scientific quotation because he states that in Science, matter and energy are equivalent, which 40 years later would be asserted and proven by Albert Einstein in his Theory of Relativity. There were no notes or details ever found from Ludlow, and he certainly did not have the mathematical background to have showed or proved the mathematical relationship. It was almost certainly a type of metaphysical statement and surely he had no idea of how accurate it was.

Although Einstein never accepted the political positions offered to him, had had many of the skills of able politicians including the visage he presented to cameras.

This quotation was a milestone on scientific and technological development. For the first time in human history the smartest and most creative and visionary people, could not understand or comprehend the direction in which science and technology was moving. It now took people with specialized mathematical capability. Experience and intuitive insight was actually counter-productive in understanding the world as it was being revealed. Intelligence, creativity, perseverance and hard work, for the first time was insufficient. Education and training was the new requirement in addition to the others.

Although a popular Einstein quote, according the Quote Investigator, there is no evidence he wrote or said these words. The earliest evidence for this quote comes from a 1981 newspaper article reporting on an Al-Anon meeting.

Although this was written in a 1920 letter, the letter was not publicly published until 1970.

See related quote.