The Quotable Einstein - Hardcover

Calaprice, Alice

4.01

362 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691026963 ISBN 13: 9780691026961

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1996

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"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

"I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don't have to."--Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a prolific--and often thoughtful and gifted--writer, and he is immensely quotable. This collection of approximately 550 quotations by and about Einstein for the first time arranges his thoughts and ideas thematically. Here we can easily find Einstein's thoughts on everything from America and Americans, Germans and Germany, Jews and Zionism, war and peace, politics, religion and science, to more personal subjects, such as abortion, youth and aging, love and marriage, music, and pets. There is something to please everyone--and something to offend everyone. Also included are sections on what Einstein has said about other famous people, what others have said about him, a chronology including biographical data, an updated family tree that includes great-great-grandchildren, answers to the most common questions about Einstein, and a selected bibliography. The book includes an engaging foreword by Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson.

To help the reader or researcher, two indexes are provided. The Index of Key Words will help readers find familiar quotations, and the Subject Index will lead them to subjects of particular interest. The book provides documentation, generally of primary sources such as the Einstein Archive and The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein.

This book introduces readers to Einstein's many sides: by turns irascible and benign, warmly humorous and coldly dismissive, one who was at first bemused by the fame the world bestowed on him but who came to abhor the glare of publicity. We also see Einstein's development from the earliest quotations of a seventeen-year-old boy to his final words at age seventy-six.

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Review:

"Masquerading as a quote book, this title may set a new standard for the genre as well as expand the concept. It is filled with the written and spoken thoughts of this cultural icon--as well as those merely attributed to him--but conveys much more than a traditional collection of sayings might."--The Bloomsbury Review

"All of us who lack Einstein's intellectual and spiritual gifts owe a debt of gratitude to Princeton University Press for having humanized him in this innovative way."--Timothy Ferris, The New York Times Book Review

"This fascinating book reveals Einstein as a fully rounded human, with both a tender and a darker, more brooding side."--Physics World

"The chief value of this collection of [Einstein's] more memorable observations on the events of the 20th century and his own part in them is that it reveals the development of the person as well as that of the scientist. [The Quotable Einstein] is something of a triumph."--New Scientist

About the Author:

Alice Calaprice is the in-house editor of Princeton University Press's The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein and the administrator of its translation project. She is a senior editor specializing in science manuscripts and is the recipient of the 1995 LMP Award for Individual Editorial Achievement in Scholarly Publishing.

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