Albert Einstein Quotes About Spinoza

• I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind... to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein (1929)

  Albert Einstein

  Believe, Fate, World

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.325, Princeton University Press

• I am fascinated by Spinoza's pantheism, but admire even more his contributions to modern thought because he is the first philosopher to deal with the soul and the body as one, not two separate things

  Albert Einstein

  Two, Soul, Body

  Albert Einstein (2010). “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.152, Princeton University Press

• It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem-the most important of all human problems.

  Albert Einstein

  Believe, Views, Order

  "Einstein and Religion: Physics and Theology". Book by Max Jammer, 1995.

• The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man's image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.

  Albert Einstein

  Religious, Atheist, Teaching

  Albert Einstein (1995). “Ideas and Opinions”, Three Rivers Press

• 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

  Letter to Michele Besso, January 6, 1948.

• I can understand your aversion to the use of the term 'religion' to describe an emotional and psychological attitude which shows itself most clearly in Spinoza... I have not found a better expression than 'religious' for the trust in the rational nature of reality that is, at least to a certain extent, accessible to human reason.

  Albert Einstein

  Religious, Attitude, Reality

  "Einstein and Oppenheimer". Book by Silvan S. Schweber, Harvard University Press, p. 291, 2009.

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