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

take the responsibility of plunging its country into such a perilous
adventure? Then why is it not done? Why must every individual and every
nation tremble for their existence? Because each seeks his own wretched
momentary advantage and refuses to subordinate it to the welfare and
prosperity of the community.

That is why I began by telling you that the fate of the human race was
more than ever dependent on its moral strength to-day. The way to a joyful
and happy state is through renunciation and self-limitation everywhere.

Where can the strength for such a process come from? Only from those
who have had the chance in their early years to fortify their minds and
broaden their outlook through study. Thus we of the older generation look to
you and hope that you will strive with all your might to achieve what was
denied to us.

To Sigmund Freud

Dear Professor Freud,

It is admirable the way the longing to perceive the truth has
overcome every other desire in you. You have shown with
irresistible clearness how inseparably the combative and
destructive instincts are bound up with the amative and vital ones
in the human psyche. At the same time a deep yearning for that
great consummation, the internal and external liberation of
mankind from war, shines out from the ruthless logic of your
expositions. This has been the declared aim of all those who
have been honoured as moral and spiritual leaders beyond the
limits of their own time and country without exception, from
Jesus Christ to Goethe and Kant. Is it not significant that such
men have been universally accepted as leaders, in spite of the
fact that their efforts to mould the course of human affairs were
attended with but small success?

I am convinced that the great men-those whose achievements,
even though in a restricted sphere, set them above their
fellows-are animated to an overwhelming extent by the same
ideals. But they have little influence on the course of political
events. It almost looks as if this domain, on which the fate of
nations depends, had inevitably to be given over to violence and
irresponsibility.

Political leaders or governments owe their position partly to
force and partly to popular election. They cannot be regarded as
representative of the best elements, morally and intellectually, in
their respective nations. The intellectual •lite have no direct
influence on the history of nations in these days; their lack of
cohesion prevents them from taking a direct part in the solution
of contemporary problems. Don't you think that a change might