Albert Einstein Biography & Qoutes

Albert Einstein Biography

Born in Germany 1879, Albert Einstein is one of the most celebrated scientists of the Twentieth Century. His theories on relativity laid the framework for a new branch of physics, and Einstein’s E = mc² on mass-energy equivalence is one of the most famous formulas in the world. In 1921, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to theoretical physics and the evolution of Quantum Theory.

Einstein is also well known as an original free-thinker, speaking on a range of humanitarian and global issues. After contributing to the theoretical development of nuclear physics and encouraging F.D. Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project, he later spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Born in Germany to Jewish parents, Einstein settled in Switzerland and then, after Hitler’s rise to power, the United States. Einstein was a truly global man and one of the undisputed genius’ of the Twentieth Century.

Early life Albert Einstein

Einstein was born 14 March 1879, in Ulm the German Empire. His parents were working-class (salesman/engineer) and non-observant Jews. Aged 15, the family moved to Milan, Italy where his father hoped Albert would become a mechanical engineer. However, despite Einstein’s intellect and thirst for knowledge, his early academic reports suggested anything but a glittering career in academia. His teachers found him dim and slow to learn. Part of the problem was that Albert expressed no interest in learning languages and the learning by rote that was popular at the time.

“School failed me, and I failed the school. It bored me. The teachers behaved like Feldwebel (sergeants). I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam.” Einstein and the Poet (1983)

At the age of 12, Einstein picked up a book on geometry and read it cover to cover. – He would later refer to it as his ‘holy booklet’. He became fascinated by maths and taught himself – becoming acquainted with the great scientific discoveries of the age.

Despite Albert’s independent learning, he languished at school. Eventually, he was asked to leave by the authorities because his indifference was setting a bad example to other students.

He applied for admission to the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His first attempt was a failure because he failed exams in botany, zoology and languages. However, he passed the next year and in 1900 became a Swiss citizen.

At college, he met a fellow student Mileva Maric, and after a long friendship, they married in 1903; they had two sons before divorcing several years later.

In 1896 Einstein renounced his German citizenship to avoid military conscription. For five years he was stateless, before successfully applying for Swiss citizenship in 1901. After graduating from Zurich college, he attempted to gain a teaching post but none was fortcoming; instead he gained a job in the Swiss Patent Office.

While working at the Patent Office, Einstein continued his own scientific discoveries and began radical experiments to consider the nature of light and space.

He published his first scientific paper in 1900, and by 1905 had completed his PhD entitled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions. In addition to working on his PhD, Einstein also worked feverishly on other papers. In 1905, he published four pivotal scientific works, which would revolutionise modern physics. 1905 would later be referred to as his ‘annus mirabilis‘

Einstein’s work started to gain recognition, and he was given a post at the University of Zurich (1909) and, in 1911, was offered the post of full-professor at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague (which was then part of Austria-Hungary Empire). He took Austrian-Hungary citizenship to accept the job. In 1914, he returned to Germany and was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. (1914–1932)

Special Theory of Relativity

This theory was written in a simple style with no footnotes or academic references. The core of his theory of relativity is that:

“Movement can only be detected and measured as relative movement; the change of position of one body in respect to another.”

Thus, there is no fixed absolute standard of comparison for judging the motion of the earth or plants. It was revolutionary because previously people had thought time and distance are absolutes. But, Einstein proved this not to be true.

He also said that if electrons travelled at close to the speed of light, their weight would increase.

This lead to Einstein’s famous equation:

E = mc²

Where E = energy m = mass and c = speed of light.

THE BEST ALBERT EINSTEIN QUOTES

• The value of achievement lies in the achieving.
• Long live impudence! It’s my guardian angel in this world.
• I always get by best with my naivety, which is 20 percent deliberate. 
• A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.
• Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion toward men and toward objective things.
• Three rules of work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
• On the mysterious: It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle.
• I salute the man who is going through life always helpful, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien.
• A calm and modest life bring more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.
• The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance. 
• Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.
• If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
• To see with one’s own eyes, to feel and judge without succumbing to the suggestive power of the fashion of the day, to be able to express what one has seen and felt in a trim sentence or even in a cunningly wrought word – is that not glorious? Is it not a proper subject for congratulation?
• Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
• The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
• If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
• To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks a real advance in science.
• I do not at all belief in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity.
• Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. 
• The only thing I did was this: in long intervals I have expressed an opinion on public issues whenever they appeared to me so bad and unfortunate that silence would have made me feel guilty of complicity.
• How strange is a lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it.
• I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever.
• The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive. 
• When I am judging a theory, I ask myself whether, if I were God, I would have arranged the world in such a way.
• I believe in intuition and inspiration. At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.
• He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
• Don’t listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions.

SHORT ALBERT EINSTEIN QUOTES

1. You never fail until you stop trying. 
2. Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.
3. The only source of knowledge is the experience.
4. A little knowledge is dangerous. So is a lot.
5. God is subtle but he is not malicious.
6. The information is not knowledge.
7. One flower is beautiful, a surfeit of flowers is vulgar.
8. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
9. Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.
10. The idle man does not know what it is to enjoy rest.
11. Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
12. Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.
13. The man of science is a poor philosopher.
14. The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
15. The only real valuable thing is intuition.
16. The weakness of attitude becomes a weakness of character.
17. If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
18. I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
19. Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
20. When the solution is simple, God is answering.

More short quotes

1. Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
2. Never memorize something that you can look up.
3. A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
4. As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
5. God always takes the simplest way.
6. If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
7. Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life coming attractions.
8. Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
9. I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
10. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.