"Albert Einstein. The world as I see it (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

has seen and felt in a snappy sentence or even in a cunningly wrought
word-is that not glorious? Is it not a proper subject for congratulation?

Greeting to G. Bernard Shaw

There are few enough people with sufficient independence to see the
weaknesses and follies of their contemporaries and remain themselves
untouched by them. And these isolated few usually soon lose their zeal for
putting things to rights when they have come face to face with human
obduracy. Only to a tiny minority is it given to fascinate their generation
by subtle humour and grace and to hold the mirror up to it by the impersonal
agency of art. To-day I salute with sincere emotion the supreme master of
this method, who has delighted-and educated-us all.

Some Notes on my American Impressions

I must redeem my promise to say something about my impressions of this
country. That is not altogether easy for me. For it is not easy to take up
the attitude of an impartial observer when one is received with such
kindness and undeserved respect as I have been in America. First of all let
me say something on this head.

The cult of individual personalities is always, in my view,
unjustified. To be sure, nature distributes her gifts variously among her
children. But there are plenty of the well-endowed ones too, thank God, and
I am firmly convinced that most of them live quiet, unregarded lives. It
strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them fur
boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to
them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate
of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque. The
consciousness of this extraordinary state of affairs would be unbearable but
for one great consoling thought: it is a welcome symptom in an age which is
commonly denounced as materialistic, that it makes heroes of men whose
ambitions lie wholly in the intellectual and moral sphere. This proves that
knowledge and justice are ranked above wealth and power by a large section
of the human race. My experience teaches me that this idealistic outlook is
particularly prevalent in America, which is usually decried as a
particularly materialistic country. After this digression I come to my
proper theme, in the hope that no more weight will be attached to my modest
remarks than they deserve.

What first strikes the visitor with amazement is the superiority of
this country in matters of technics and organization. Objects of everyday
use are more solid than in Europe, houses infinitely more convenient in
arrangement. Everything is designed to save human labour. Labour is
expensive, because the country is sparsely inhabited in comparison with its
natural resources. The high price of labour was the stimulus which evoked
the marvellous development of technical devices and methods of work. The
opposite extreme is illustrated by over-populated China or India, where the
low price of labour has stood in the way of the development of machinery.