I read this earlier today and a sense of validation for studying literature and the humanities washed over me. Not that I needed it, but if anyone wants to know why I find value in my education, Albert Einstein has provided an answer.
"Somebody who reads only 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. And what a person thinks on his own without being stimulated by the thoughts and experiences of other people is even in the best case rather paltry and monotonous.
There are only a few enlightened people with a lucid mind and style and with good taste within a century. What has been preserved of their work belongs among the most precious possessions of mankind. We owe it to a few writers of antiquity that the people of the Middle Ages could slowly extricate themselves from the superstitions and ignorance that had darkened life for more than half a millenium.
Nothing is more needed to overcome the modernist's snobbishness."
[By Albert Einstein. Written for the Jungkaufmann, a monthly publication of the "Schweizerischer Kaufmaennischer Verein, Jugendbund," February 29, 1952.]
6 comments:
I wonder if Einstein considered himself to have a lucid mind and good taste. Speaking of snobbishness...
But mostly, I love this. Thanks for posting. You should do so more often!
good quote sarah. i have been thinking a lot how many people surround themselves with influences that only reinforce what they already believe...i think it hinders growth,...so i liked this quote a lot.
yeah sarah, I like your thoughts. thanks for sharing.
Sarah, you are stupid. Almost as stupid as Einstein. Just slash kidding. I thought I ought to be different in an effort to "stimulate the thoughts and experiences of other people," rather than being paltry and monotonous by giving in to the line of compliments you were receiving. You modernist snob. JK4eva' again.
maybe I'm naive or gullible, but I feel like there is more than a few great minds in a century, but I do agree that in general, people don't think for themselves. I know I'm tempted to believe things sometimes because they conform to the beliefs of those around me, and I wonder if there are any advantages to that or if its a bad idea all around
Hey Sarah! I stumbled across your blog, and I really appreciate that quote from Einstein, considering that my profession is to study and teach literature and wisdom from all ages. Have you ever read George MacDonald? He has some brilliant things to say about studying the Humanities, but my favorite quote is this:
"If I could get them to like poetry and beautiful things in words, it would not only do them good, but would help them to see what is in the Bible, and therefore to love it more. To find God in other books enables us to see clearly that He is more in the Bible than in any other book, or all other books put together." -- George MacDonald
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