Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.
Interpretation
Relying solely on contemporary media limits one's perspective and understanding of the world.
In this quote, Albert Einstein emphasizes the importance of broadening one’s intellectual horizons beyond modern media and literature. He likens someone who only consumes contemporary sources to a near-sighted person who refuses to wear glasses, suggesting that such limited exposure results in a narrow worldview shaped by current trends and biases, preventing true understanding and insight.
In practice
In a speech about the value of diverse literary sources, one could cite Einstein's quote to encourage students to explore a wider range of literature.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
It is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going.
I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.
If you associate enough with older people who do enjoy their lives, who are not stored away in any golden ghettos, you will gain a sense of continuity and of the possibility for a full life.
Comparing oneself with one's fellow writers is a bad idea. I would not review a fellow writer unless I had something terribly positive to say.
None of us can know what we are capable of until we are tested.
Inside every seventy-year-old is a thirty-five-year-old asking, 'What happened?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.