Albert Einstein? Freeman Dyson? H. Dieter Zeh? Apocryphal?
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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.
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Distinction Between Past, Present, and Future Is Only a Stubbornly Persistent Illusion”