Bases

I agree with your remark about loving your enemy as far as actions are concerned. But for me the cognitive basis is the trust in an unrestricted causality. ‘I cannot hate him, because he must do what he does.’ That means for me more Spinoza than the prophets.

#Albert Einstein#Hate#Mean#Loving You#Enemy#Action#Spinoza#Free Will#Prophet#Agree#Concerned#Loving Your Enemies#Bases#Causality#Doe#Cognitive#Remarks#Hate Him

I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves - this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.

#Albert Einstein#Art#My Way#World#Kindness#Effort#Men#Mind#Possession#Empty#Kinship#Bases#Critical#Ease#Endeavor#Ends#Faces#Fields#Given#Humans#Luxury#Occupation#Unattainable#Way#Has Beens#Ideals#Objects#Objectives

I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain—especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks, against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state.

#Albert Einstein#Fighting#Army#Together#Awareness#Creation#Judaism#Modest#Living Together#Nationalism#Agreement#Bases#Borders#Damage#Development#Essentials#Ideas#Matter#Should#States#Reasonable#Zionist#Zionism

It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere… Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.

#Albert Einstein#Religion#Death#Goal#Men#Imagine#Poor#Morality#Moral#Religious#Ethical#Ethical Behavior#Behavior#After Death#Atheism#Atheist#Dying#Social#Bases#Humans#Ideas#Needs#Punishment#Rewards#Should#Spheres#Ties#Undermining#Unjust#Way#Positive Atheism#Concepts#Has Beens#Ifs#Seems#Reward And Punishment#Agnostic#There Is No God#Religion God#God Is Not Great#There Being No God#God And Science#Science God

My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment.

#Albert Einstein#Moral#Agnostic#Consciousness#Importance#Giver#Bases#Betterment#Doe#Ideas#Law#Needs#Position#Principles#Punishment#Reward And Punishment#Rewards#Vivid#Convinced#Moral Principles#Primaries#I Believe In God

The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth. To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

#Albert Einstein#Goal#Joy#Comfort#Ethics#Goodness#Cattle#Bases#Filled#Herds#Would Be#Built#Ideals#Sufficient#Joy Of Living#Interesting