“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
What good is a person’s presumed success if it offers nothing of value to anyone else?
On the Value of Success, and the Success of Value
1
Category Archives: Albert Einstein in Today’s World
On the Illusion of Certainty
“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
-Albert Einstein
To the degree that you are certain of reality is the degree to which you do not know what is real. And vice-versa.
On An Intuitive Path To Truth
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
-Albert Einstein
The rational mind is best used when in pursuit of the miraculous and mysterious, in following a hunch, in looking beyond the obvious and immediate.
The intuitive mind is the fundamental source of all human progress.
On the Key to Growing Old and Wise (Instead of Just Old)
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
-Albert Einstein
The body will stop growing, begin to break down, wither… But it is the seeking mind that grows wise as well as old, knowing that the act of questioning is the fundamental source of wisdom.
We cease to grow when we stop questioning.
On the Difference Between Being Smart and Being a Genius
“Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them”
-Albert Einstein
Many a smart and diligent intellect may apply itself to the resolution crisis. It is to the avoidance of such that true genius lies.
On Living in the Moment
“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough”
-Albert Einstein
Dwell too much on what may happen and you’ll miss what is happening.
On Cautious Optimism
“The stakes are immense, the task colossal, the time is short. But we may hope — we must hope — that man’s own creation, man’s own genius, will not destroy him. Scholars, indeed all men, must move forward in the faith of that philosopher who held that there is no problem the human reason can propound which the human reason cannot reason out.”
-Albert Einstein
It is too easy to view world events and abandon hope. We’re all doomed!!
But not only is hope possible, it is required – a mission and a duty for all caring human beings – for finding a way out of the mess we have made.
On Taxes
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
-Albert Einstein
And if you don’t understand it by now, be prepared to pull an all-nighter figuring it out.
On Seeing the Forest for the Trees
“What does a fish know about the water in which it swims all its life?”
-Albert Einstein
Is it possible for a fish to swim its entire life and never know of the ocean?
If so, does it make you wonder what you’re missing, swimming through your own life?
On How We’re All In This Together
“The individual, if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast-like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly conceive. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has not so much in virtue of his individuality, but rather as a member of a great human society, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to the grave”
-Albert Einstein
You’re reading this and I’m writing it. Neither one of us matter without the other.