But very unscientific in some of his thinking, as the following words reveal: "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead..."
He was also a closet Buddhist, to coin an inelegant phrase, as indicated in the following quotation: "The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self."
(And yes, it's true that at the time, gender-neutrality of pronouns was not a burning issue.)
Quotes are taken from page 12 and 11 respectively, in Albert Einstein: Ideas and Opinions published by Rupa & Co, 1979
NIGHTMERRIES: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF DARKNESS This so-called "book" will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you twitching and frothing on the carpet. More than 60 dark and feculent fictions (read ‘em and weep) copiously illustrated by over 20 grotesque images you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.
AWAREWOLF & OTHER CRHYMES AGAINST HUMANITY (Vot could be Verse?) We all hate poetry, right? But we might make an exception for this sick and twisted stuff. This devil's banquet of adults-only offal features more than 50 satanic sonnets, vitriolic verses and odious odes.
MANIC MEMES & OTHER MINDSPACE INVADERS A disturbing repository of quotably quirky quotes, sayings, proverbs, maxims, ponderances, adages and aphorisms. This menagerie holds no fewer than 184 memes from eight meme-species perfectly adapted to their respective environments.
MASTRESS & OTHER TWISTED TAILS, ILLUSTRATED: an unholy corpus of oddities, strangelings, bizarritudes and peculiaritisms
FIENDS & FREAKS Adults-only Tales of Serpents, Dragons, Devils, Lobsters, Anguished Spirits, Gods, Anti-gods and Other Horse-thieves You Wouldn't Want to Meet in a Dark Kosmos: 4th Edition
HAGS TO HAGGIS Whiskey-soaked Tails of War-nags, Witches, Manticores and Escapegoats, Debottlenecking and Desilofication, Illustrated
Believe it or not, it seems that brainy Einstein and dullard me have more in common than most would think.
I embraced pantheism when I was eighteen. However, at much closer to 48, I have realized that none of the deities really give a shit about me.
Hi Cie, I think we all have much much more in common than we realise. But not all that surprising seeing as we're all part of the same person!
And BTW, if your writing is anything to do by, "dullard" is very far from being an accurate description.
thanks for stopping by, Cheers, MM
The aspect of me that sometimes identifies itself with Einstein is pleased that you have highlighted this little-known aspect of the Stoned One (ain't that what his name actually means?)
Hi Antares
yes Einstein's pretty high, pretty out there: as far and high as any have flown among the stars.
(cue twilight zone audio)
Thanks for stopping by! ;-)
COMMENTS? Come on... gimme your best shot!