Category Archives: Albert Einstein

Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid.

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Albert Einstein? Amos Dolbear? Matthew Kelly? Apocryphal?

mudskipper02Dear Quote Investigator: The following saying is popular on Facebook where it is credited to Albert Einstein. I have also seen it on numerous websites:

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

Sometimes “everybody” is used instead of “everyone”. Did Einstein really say this?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein made this statement. It does not appear in the comprehensive collection of quotations “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press. 1

The earliest evidence of a close match known to QI appeared in 2004, and that is decades after the death of Einstein in 1955. The self-help book “The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose” by Matthew Kelly contained a chapter titled “Everybody is a Genius” which began: 2

Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The question I have for you at this point of our journey together is, “What is your genius?”

This quotation alludes to a long-standing allegorical framework. It is inappropriate to judge an animal by focusing on a skill which the creature does not possess. A fish is specialized to swim superbly, and its ability to climb a tree is non-existent or rudimentary. In the domain of education this allegory has been employed repeatedly for more than one hundred years. Hence, this quotation is built on ideas that have been in circulation among educators for many decades.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Notes:

  1. 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ↩
  2. 2004, “The rhythm of life: living every day with passion and purpose” by Matthew Kelly, Quote Page 80, Fireside, New York. (Google Books Preview) ↩

I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction

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Albert Einstein? Cell Phone Critics? Pranksters? Apocryphal?

einsteintech02Dear Quote Investigator: A friend sent me a link to a message on a website with the title: “The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived”. The message showed eight pictures of groups of people looking intently at cell phone screens. The people were ignoring one another and were oblivious to their surroundings. The images were being used to comically illustrate the following quotation credited to Albert Einstein:

I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

I was suspicious of this attribution and when I searched the internet I found another similar saying credited to Einstein in a web forum. This statement was also illustrated with an image of people staring at cell phone screens.

I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots.

I have a different fear. I fear the day that individuals will believe that Einstein actually made one of these inane statements. Could you examine these sayings?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein made either of these statements. Neither appears in the comprehensive collection of quotations “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press. 1

Both versions given by the questioner were in circulation in 2012. For example, a website called answerbag.com presented a version of the saying in a message with an attached date of October 21, 2012: 2

Einstein: I fear the day when the technology overlaps with our humanity. The world will only have a generation of idiots. Was he right?

Dates on websites are sometimes inaccurate because the retroactive alteration of text and dates is easy to accomplish. Sometimes the content of a webpage is altered, and the date associated with the content is not updated to reflect the modification.

A website called imfunny.net currently displays a composite image post dated November 3, 2012 with the title: “The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived”. The post consists of nine images including one displaying the quotation given below. Two of the images are shown at the top of this article. No name is given for the person posting the message: 3

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Albert Einstein

Below are additional selected citations.

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Notes:

  1. 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. ↩
  2. Answerbag website, Section: Questions: Life And Society: More Life And Society, Message posted by Susan_madari, Date October 21, 2012, Answerbag is part of Demand Media Corporation. (Accessed answerbag.com on March 19, 2013) link ↩
  3. imfunny.net website, Website title: “Funny Pictures, Funny Quotes – Photos, Quotes, Images, Pics imfunny.net – is just for fun”, Title: The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived, Date: November 3, 2012. (Accessed imfunny.net March 19, 2013) link ↩

Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge

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Albert Einstein? Apocryphal?

einsteinjplgalaxy99zDear Quote Investigator: Many websites credit Albert Einstein with this statement:

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

I am skeptical. Are these the words of Einstein?

Quote Investigator: Yes. This remark was made by Einstein in an interview that was published in “The Saturday Evening Post” in 1929. Here is an excerpt showing the context of his comment. The first paragraph below records Einstein’s words; the next sentence is the interviewer speaking; the final paragraph is Einstein speaking again. Boldface has been added to the following passage and some excerpts further below: 1

“I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. When two expeditions of scientists, financed by the Royal Academy, went forth to test my theory of relativity, I was convinced that their conclusions would tally with my hypothesis. I was not surprised when the eclipse of May 29, 1919, confirmed my intuitions. I would have been surprised if I had been wrong.”

“Then you trust more to your imagination than to your knowledge?”

“I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Notes:

  1. 1929 October 26, The Saturday Evening Post, What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck, Start Page 17, Quote Page 117, Column 1, Saturday Evening Post Society, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Verified on microfilm) ↩

It Has Become Appallingly Obvious That Our Technology Has Exceeded Our Humanity

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Albert Einstein? Victor Salva? Sean Patrick Flanery? Jeff Goldblum? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: There’s a quote attributed to Albert Einstein which I like a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s really his:

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

Can you please tell me if it was said or written by him?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein made this statement. It does not appear in the comprehensive collection of quotations “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press. 1

The earliest evidence of a closely matching quotation known to QI was in a 1995 movie called “Powder” which was written and directed by Victor Salva and starred Sean Patrick Flanery as the main character whose strong paranormal powers drove the plot. Flanery played Jeremy Reed who had an albino-like appearance and was given the nickname Powder. Near the end of the film there was a dialog between Reed and a character named Donald Ripley, a physics teacher played by Jeff Goldblum. The quotation was delivered by Ripley and then Reed immediately ascribed it to Einstein: 2

Donald Ripley: It’s become appallingly clear that our technology has surpassed our humanity.
Jeremy Reed: Albert Einstein.
Donald Ripley: I look at you, and I, I think that someday our humanity might actually surpass our technology.

The statement in this dialog is not identical to the one given by the questioner. For example, Ripley’s remark used the words “clear” and “surpassed” while the questioner’s instance used the words “obvious” and “exceeded”. But semantically they are quite close.

This article concludes after the presentation of one more citation.

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Notes:

  1. 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper) ↩
  2. YouTube video, Video excerpt from Powder (1995), [Powder: Production Company: Caravan Pictures], YouTube Title: “Powder (11/11)”, [Quote spoken at 5:13 of 10:00 minutes], Uploaded by Magazine30 on September 13, 2009. (Accessed youtube.com on October 24, 2012) link ↩

The One Who Follows the Crowd Will Usually Go No Further Than the Crowd

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Albert Einstein? Eda LeShan? Alan Ashley-Pitt? Francis Phillip Wernig? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The following quote has been credited to Albert Einstein and posted on Facebook and various websites:

The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.

Here is an alternative version I have seen:

The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.

Is this a sample of Einstein’s wisdom?

Quote Investigator: Probably not. It does not appear in the comprehensive collection of quotations “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press. 1

The earliest evidence of the saying that QI has located appeared in the 1970s. The 1973 self-help book “The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age” by Eda LeShan contained a discussion about creativity that included a version of the saying, and the author did not attribute the words to Albert Einstein. She stated that the quotation was from a poster she had seen, and in a footnote she identified Alan Ashley-Pitt as the creator: 2

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.

Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along. You have two choices in your life; you can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be . . . *

* By Alan Ashley-Pitt (Aardvarque Enterprises, 116 W. Arrellaga Street, Santa Barbara, California 93104).

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Notes:

  1. 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper) ↩
  2. 1973, The Wonderful Crisis of Middle Age by Eda LeShan, Quote Page 304, [Copyright 1973; First Printing November 1974], Warner Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩

No One Can Win at Roulette Unless He Steals Money from the Table While the Croupier Isn’t Looking

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Albert Einstein? Nick the Greek? Nicholas Dandolos? Ted Thackrey, Jr.? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: According to a legend in the gambling world Albert Einstein once visited a Las Vegas casino and after observing the action around the roulette wheel he said:

You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.

Any truth to this story?

Quote Investigator: QI believes this quotation can be traced back to an article and a book by a controversial reporter named Ted Thackrey, Jr. In 1968 the Toledo Blade newspaper of Ohio published a series of articles by Thackrey under the title “Secrets of a Master Gambler”. The fourth article discussed a colorful gambler named Nick the Greek who died in 1966 and whose full name was Nicholas Andrea Dandolos. A version of the saying attributed to Einstein was included [AETT]:

Indeed, Albert Einstein once made the flat statement no one could possibly win at roulette “unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn’t looking.”

But during the little mathematician’s visit to Las Vegas the Greek stopped off briefly at a roulette table, bought a handful of chips, plunked them down on red — won — and let them ride for two more spins, on which red also appeared.

Then he cashed in, pocketed his winning and grinned at the scientist.

Also in 1968 Thackrey published the book “Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek” which gave a more elaborate account of the supposed interactions of the famous gambler and Einstein [AEBG]:

Just how or when the gambler and the scientist happened to become acquainted was a matter that neither man ever bothered to explain.

According to Thackrey the event at the roulette wheel occurred when Dandolos was showing Einstein around the city [AEBG]:

So when the great mathematician decided to make a brief stopover in the gambling capital during a coast-to-coast journey, it seemed only natural that The Greek should be waiting at the airport to greet him and conduct him on a special tour of the city’s principal points of interest.

In the book the description of the roulette anecdote was extended, and after Dandolos won three times Einstein was apologetic [AEBG]:

Then he cashed in, pocketed his winnings, and grinned at the scientist.
“Any questions?”
“One,” said Einstein.
“And it is . . ?”
“I was wondering if you would be kind enough to wash my mouth out with soap?”

Humorous and outlandish details were presented as true by Thackrey [AEBG]:

Realizing that most of his gambling friends wouldn’t understand who Einstein was if he told them, Nick introduced the scientific genius as “Little Al from Princeton—controls a lot of the action around Jersey.”

In the book Dandolos and Einstein discussed the odds of various games, and Einstein wondered why someone would play a game like Chuck-A-Luck with such poor winning odds. Dandolos was also unable to understand the psychology of such gamblers.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Everything Is Energy and That’s All There Is To It. Match the Frequency of the Reality You Want

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Albert Einstein? Darryl Anka? Bashar? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Many odd quotations are credited to the brilliant scientist Albert Einstein, and recently I have seen another peculiar example featured on Facebook and multiple websites:

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.

I do not think this is physics, and I do not think these are Einstein’s words. The statement appears similar to tenets popularized in New Age books and magazines. Can you find out more about this quotation?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Albert Einstein said this. It does not appear in the comprehensive collection of quotations “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” from Princeton University Press [UQEI].

The earliest evidence QI can find for this quote is in a digital archive captured in April 2000 of a webpage from a site called bashar.org. The data can be viewed by using the “Wayback Machine”, a service provided by the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization which offers permanent storage and access to massive collections of digitized materials.

A set of computers at the Internet Archive regularly crawl the web and download accessible webpages. The data is stored for later examination by researchers, historians, and the curious. The “Wayback Machine” provides a front-end to a search engine that allows a user to view the contents of an individual webpage as it appeared on dates from the past. However, only a limited number of webpages and dates are available for study.

On April 8, 2000 a computer at the Internet Archive visited the website bashar.org and downloaded a webpage that included the quotation under investigation in the last paragraph. The title at the top of the page was “The Ides of March”. The words on the page were not attributed to Albert Einstein. Instead, the name Darryl Anka appeared at the bottom of the page along with a copyright symbol and a 1996 date. The webpage was likely created sometime between 1996 and April 2000.

The Wikipedia entry for Darryl Anka states that he worked as a special effects artist for several motion pictures. In addition, it states that Anka is known as a channeler [WKDA]:

Anka claims that he began to communicate, through trance-channeling, with an extra-terrestrial entity called Bashar in 1983. He describes Bashar as existing in a parallel reality, in a time frame that we perceive as the future.

The webpage at bashar.org from April 2000 explicated the philosophy of Bashar as channeled by Anka. The page stated: “Everything you could ever want, it has already been given to you”. Here is an additional excerpt to illuminate the viewpoint being espoused [DABS]:

Everything is here and now, but in various states of visibility and invisibility depending upon the frequency that you are operating on, and that means the belief system, the definitions that you buy into most strongly.

The background given above might help the reader to interpret the final paragraph on the webpage [DABS]:

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is physics.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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You Don’t Have to Know Everything. You Just Have to Know Where to Find It

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Albert Einstein? Sophonisba Breckinridge? John Brunner? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The depth and breadth of information available on the internet is wondrous. Here is an example of a very pertinent quotation I came across recently:

I don’t need to know everything; I just need to know where to find it, when I need it.

This saying expresses a fundamental insight into this age of vast knowledge bases and high-speed networks. The words were credited to Albert Einstein, but I cannot find any precise reference. Why is there so much junk and misinformation about quotations? The prevalence of inaccurate data makes it harder to find correct information. Can you trace this general saying?

Quote Investigator: This quotation is not listed in the key reference work “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” [UQEI], and QI has been unable to find any substantive evidence connecting the saying to Einstein.

The idea does have a long history before the computer age. Here is an instance in 1914 in a periodical called “The Expositor and Current Anecdotes” [EXWI]:

Educated people are not those who know everything, but rather those who know where to find, at a moment’s notice, the information they desire.

This sentence appeared in an advertisement directed at clergymen concerning a book that could be used to organize clippings and references. Another example from that time period in 1917 was located by the top researcher Victor Steinbok in “The Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor” [PIAP]:

Someone has said that the cleverest people are not those who know everything, but those who know where to look for and find any information that is at the moment required. Which is only another way of saying that they have methodical minds and habits and know how and where to store their knowledge.

The educator and social reformer Sophonisba Breckinridge expressed the idea to a group of her students as recorded in 1958 [UNSP]:

When I was studying at the University of Chicago, Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, that great social welfare leader who was one of my teachers, once told the class of public welfare administration, “You don’t have to know everything, but you should learn how and where to find the things you need and want to know.”

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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The Telegraph is Like a Very, Very Long Cat

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Albert Einstein? Shah of Persia? National Telegraphic Union? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Albert Einstein was once asked to explain radio communication, and he supposedly gave the following answer:

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.  You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.  Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there.  The only difference is that there is no cat.

Personally, I doubt that this quotation should be credited to Einstein, but I still find it fascinating. Could you determine who created this joke?

Quote Investigator: There is no significant evidence that Einstein ever wrote or spoke the passage above. The earliest cite QI has located for this text was within a 1985 source code listing of a computer program called “fortune”. This program was part of the installation of the popular Unix operating system, and “fortune” was inspired by the notion of a fortune cookie.

When the program was run it displayed one saying from a large collection of texts that was kept in a simple database file. The quote above appeared in a version of the program that was distributed on February 28, 1985. 1 The quote may have been present in the program for several years before this date.

QI has not yet found any connection between Einstein and the anecdote predating the “fortune” program version. But the jocular comparison of telegraphy and very long animals has an extensive history. The earliest instances of the comical remarks featured a dog instead of a cat. Here is an example in 1866: 2

A Novel Illustration of the Telegraph.—A most ludicrous conversation took place a few weeks ago in a small village near Paris. Two peasants were discussing about the war between Austria and Prussia, when one of them remarked that he could not understand how messages could be sent by the electric telegraph. His companion after having tried to make him comprehend the manner in which the telegraph works, at last, struck with a bright idea, exclaimed:

“Imagine that the telegraph is an immense long dog-so long that its head is at Vienna and its tail is at Paris. Well, tread on its tail, which is at Paris, and it will bark at Vienna. Do you understand now, stupid, what the telegraph is like?”

“O, yes,” replied the other. “I have an idea now what a telegraph must be.”

This basic anecdote was retold over a period of many decades with a shifting cast of characters. For example, a diary entry in 1873 claimed that the workings of the telegraph were explained to the “Shah of Persia” by using the simile of an “immense dog” stretched between London and Teheran. In 1877 the joke was moved to America, and the dog was used to connect Brooklyn and Hoboken.

By 1917 a new elaboration was added to the evolving story. This variant joke discussed telegraphy with and without a wire. The animal used for transmission was a dog which was spelled “dawg”. The punch line in heavy dialect stated that the operation of the wireless device was “prezactly de same” except that “de dawg am ‘maginary”, i.e., exactly the same except that the dog is imaginary.

By 1924 another variant entered circulation that featured a cat. This variant also spoke about telegraphy with and without a wire. The punch line was “wireless is precisely the same thing without the cat”. This version strongly matched the joke attributed to Einstein, but his name was not mentioned in 1924. Special thanks to correspondent Andrew Steinberg for identifying this important early citation with a cat instead of a dog. Further details for these evolving instances of the joke are given further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
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Notes:

  1. 1985 February 28, Usenet Newsgroup: net.sources.games, Subject: sunybcs’s fortune(6), From: Col. G. L. Sicherman, [Source code listing for fortune computer program distributed via Usenet] (Google Usenet groups archive; Accessed February 23, 2012) (Note: the following words preface the quotation given above: “Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied:”) link ↩
  2. 1866 August 31, Providence Evening Press, A Novel Illustration Of The Telegraph, Page 2, Column 2, Providence, Rhode Island. (GenealogyBank) ↩

Some Spirit is Manifest in the Laws of the Universe, One that is Vastly Superior to that of Man

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Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Did Albert Einstein say the following?

Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe – a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must seem humble.

When I search online for this sentence I get screen after screen of citations from people grinding religious axes, but never a source. I suspect Einstein really did say it, but I should love to be certain and to know the context.

Quote Investigator: In 1936 Albert Einstein sent a letter to a sixth-grade student named Phyllis Wright. The letter was written in Einstein’s native language of German and not in English. His note was complex, multi-layered, and difficult to translate into English. The missive did contain a section that expressed an opinion similar to the one in the text presented by the questioner. Further below QI will present three distinct translations of an excerpt from the letter corresponding to the passage above.

Einstein was replying to a query which was based on a topic of classroom discussion in a Sunday school course. Here is an excerpt from the note of Phyllis [PSAE]:

We will feel greatly honored if you will answer our question: Do scientists pray, and what do they pray for?

Einstein’s note was dated January 24, 1936 and reflected his multifaceted beliefs in the spiritual domain. Here is additional information together with a citation.

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