Albert Einstein? Freeman Dyson? H. Dieter Zeh? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The universe can be modeled as a vast four-dimensional spacetime manifold. From this viewpoint, time does not change; instead, the universe is static and timeless. Here are four versions of a statement attributed to the famous physicist Albert Einstein:
(1) The separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.
(2) This separation between past, present, and future has the value of mere illusion, however tenacious.
(3) The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
(4) Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
I have not been able to find a citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In March 1972 “The New York Times” published an article titled “Some of Einstein’s Reflections, Aphorisms and Observations” which included a version of the quotation. The article printed an excerpt from a letter dated March 21, 1955 from Albert Einstein to family members of Michele Angelo Besso who had died recently. Besso had been Einstein’s lifelong friend. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
With the departure from this strange world, he now has gone a little ahead of me. This is of no significance. For us believing physicists, the separation between past, present and future has only the meaning of an illusion, albeit a tenacious one.
The original German version of Einstein’s quotation can be seen in a book by physicist H. Dieter Zeh titled “The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time”:2
Four weeks before his death Albert Einstein wrote in a letter of condolence to the family of his life-long friend Michael Besso . . . “Für uns gläubige Physiker hat die Scheidung zwischen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft nur die Bedeutung einer wenn auch hartnäckigen Illusion.”
There is no doubt that Einstein meant this remark very seriously. It obviously refers to the four-dimensional (‘static’ or ‘objective’) representation of all events in a spacetime frame which his theory of relativity uses so efficiently.
A scan of Einstein’s 1955 letter is viewable on the website of Christie’s auction house where it is accompanied with an article discussing the quotation.3
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In December 1972 “The New York Times” printed an article discussing a book recently published in Paris containing the correspondence between Einstein and Besso from 1903 to 1955. The book was written in French and German. The “Times” article mentioned the condolence letter and included an excerpt translated into English:4
Now he’s gone slightly ahead of me again, leaving this strange world. That doesn’t mean anything. For us believing physicists this separation between past present and future has the value of mere illusion, however tenacious.”
In 1979 physicist Freeman Dyson published “Disturbing The Universe” which included another translation of the quotation:5
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Einstein went serenely to his death four weeks later. His discovery of relativity taught us that in physics the division of space-time into past, present and future is an illusion.
In 1997 “Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations: The Most Notable Quotes Since 1950” included an entry for the quotation which pointed to the instance in “The New York Times” in December 1972.6
Also, in 1997 the “Bennington Banner” of Vermont printed a simplified instance of the remark:7
Quote of the Day
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Albert Einstein.
In 2007 Walter Isaacson published a biography titled “Einstein: His Life and Universe” which included a version of the remark:8
As if he knew that he had only a few more weeks, Einstein ruminated on the nature of death and time in the condolence letter he wrote to Besso’s family. “He has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubborn illusion.”
In 2010 “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein” edited by Alice Calaprice included this entry:9
On Michele Besso (1873-1955)
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
On lifelong friend Michele Besso, in a letter of condolence to the Besso family, March 21, 1955, less than a month before his own death. Einstein Archives 7-245
In conclusion, Albert Einstein deserves credit for the statement he wrote in German in a letter in 1955. Several different translations into English have appeared during subsequent decades.
Image Notes: Silhouette of a person standing before a starfield from Jeremy Thomas at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to quotation expert Mardy Grothe whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Grothe operates the fascinating website called “A Celebration of Great Opening Lines in World Literature”.
- 1972 March 29, New York Times, Some of Einstein’s Reflections, Aphorisms and Observations, Quote Page 20, Column 6, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1989, The Physical Basis of the Direction of Time by H. Dieter Zeh (Heinz-Dieter Zeh), Section: Epilogue, Quote Page 149, Springer-Verlag, Berlin and New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- Website: Christie’s Auction House, Article title: Time’s arrow: Albert Einstein’s letters to Michele Besso, Article author: Thomas Venning (Head of Books & Manuscripts at Christie’s in London), Date on website: November 13, 2017, Letter description: Letter from Albert Einstein to his friend Michele Besso, Letter date: March 1955, Website description: News and information for Christies auction house. (Accessed christies.com on March 17, 2024) link ↩︎
- 1972 December 1, New York Times, Einstein Letters Show the Physicist as Person by Israel Shenker (Special to The New York Times), Start Page 41, Quote Page 65, Column 8, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1979, Disturbing The Universe by Freeman Dyson, Chapter 17: A Distant Mirror, Quote Page 193, Harper & Row, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1997, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations: The Most Notable Quotes Since 1950, Revised Edition, Edited by James B. Simpson, Section: The World, Topic: Science, Person: Albert Einstein (physicist), Quote Page 260, Column 2, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1997 May 1, Bennington Banner, Quote of the Day, Quote Page 10, Column 1, Bennington, Vermont. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2007, Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, Chapter 25: The End 1955, Quote Page 540, Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2010, The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice, Section: On and to Friends, Specific Scientists, and Others, Quote Page 113, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. (Verified on paper) ↩︎