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

it passionately, even though in times of political confusion they may have
remained isolated among their colleagues of inferior calibre. In every camp
during the War this mass of voters betrayed their sacred trust. The
international society of the academies was broken up. Congresses were and
still are held from which colleagues from ex-enemy countries are excluded.
Political considerations, advanced with much solemnity, prevent the triumph
of purely objective ways of thinking without which our great aims must
necessarily be frustrated.

What can right-minded people, people who are proof against the
emotional temptations of the moment, do to repair the damage? With the
majority of intellectual workers still so excited, truly international
congresses on the grand scale cannot yet be held. The psychological
obstacles to the restoration of the international associations of scientific
workers are still too formidable to be overcome by the minority whose ideas
and feelings are of a more comprehensive kind. These last can aid in the
great work of restoring the international societies to health by keeping in
close touch with like-minded people all over the world and resolutely
championing the international cause in their own spheres. Success on a large
scale will take time, but it will undoubtedly come. I cannot let this
opportunity pass without paying a tribute to the way in which the desire to
preserve the confraternity of the intellect has remained alive through all
these difficult years in the breasts of a large number of our English
colleagues especially.

The disposition of the individual is everywhere better than the
official pronouncements. Right-minded people should bear this in mind and
not allow themselves to be misled and get angry: senatores boni viri,
senatus autem bestia.

If I am full of confident hope concerning the progress of international
organization in general, that feeling is based not so much on my confidence
in the intelligence and high-mindedness of my fellows, but rather on the
irresistible pressure of economic developments. And since these depend
largely on the work even of reactionary scientists, they too will help to
create the international organization against their wills.

The Institute for Intellectual Co-operation

During this year the leading politicians of Europe have for the first
time drawn the logical conclusion from the truth that our portion of the
globe can only regain its prosperity if the underground struggle between the
traditional political units ceases. The political organization of Europe
must be strengthened, and a gradual attempt made to abolish tariff barriers.
This great end cannot be achieved by treaties alone. People's minds must,
above all, be prepared for it. We must try gradually to awaken in them a
sense of solidarity which does not, as hitherto, stop at frontiers. It is
with this in mind that the League of Nations has created the Commission de
coop€ration intellectuelle. This Commission is to be an absolutely
international and entirely nonpolitical authority, whose business it is to