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

corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools
and the Press.

The fairest thing we can experience is 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. It was the experience of
mystery-even if mixed with fear-that engendered religion. A knowledge of
the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the
profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to
our reason in their most elementary forms-it is this knowledge and this
emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in
this alone, I am a deeply religious man. I cannot conceive of a God who
rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we
are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical
death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such
notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me
the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous
structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to
comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests
itself in nature.

The Liberty of Doctrine-ћ propos of the Guntbel Case


Academic chairs are many, but wise and noble teachers are few;
lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who
genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small. Nature scatters her
common wares with a lavish hand, but the choice sort she produces but
seldom. We all know that, so why complain? Was it not ever thus and will it
not ever thus remain? Certainly, and one must take what Nature gives as one
finds it. But there is also such a thing as a spirit of the times, an
attitude of mind characteristic of a particular generation, which is passed
on from individual to individual and gives a society its particular tone.
Each of us has to do his little bit towards transforming this spirit of the
times.

Compare the spirit which animated the youth in our universities a
hundred years ago with that prevailing to-day. They had faith in the
amelioration of human society, respect for every honest opinion, the
tolerance for which our classics had lived and fought. In those days men
strove for a larger political unity, which at that time was called Germany.
It was the students and the teachers at the universities who kept these
ideals alive.

To-day also there is an urge towards social progress, towards tolerance
and freedom of thought, towards a larger political unity, which we to-day
call Europe. But the students at our universities have ceased as completely
as their teachers to enshrine the hopes and ideals of the nation. Anyone who
looks at our times coolly and dispassionately must admit this.