ANCIENT& not so ancient WISDOM
offering a weekly positive perspective

June 19, 2003

The important thing is not to stop questioning.
     Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

- Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955

Einstein lived as a boy in Munich and Milan. Unable to talk until he was three years old, Albert Einstein was initially suspected of being mentally retarded. He was dismissed as slow and lazy by his teachers. Mathematics was his sole strong point, and when he quit school at the age of 15, his teacher claimed there was nothing left to teach him.

Einstein's mother introduced him to the violin at the age of six in an attempt to counteract his academic failures. Einstein eventually became an accomplished amateur violinist and discussing the parallels between music and mathematics.

Einstein graduated in 1900 from the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich. Later he became a Swiss citizen. He was a patent office examiner for seven years beginning in 1902 in Bern, Switzerland. During this period he obtained his doctorate (1905) at the University of Zürich, evolved the special theory of relativity, explained the photoelectric effect, and studied the motion of atoms. In 1910, he became a full professor at the German University, Prague, and in 1912 he accepted the chair of theoretical physics at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich. For his work in theoretical physics, notably on the photoelectric effect, he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

His property was confiscated (1934) by the Nazi government because he was Jewish, and he was deprived of his German citizenship. He moved to the United States in 1933 with a post at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, which he held until his death in 1955. An ardent pacifist, Einstein was long active in the cause of world peace. In 1939, at the request of a group of scientists, he wrote to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to stress the urgency of investigating the possible use of atomic energy in bombs. In 1940, he became an American citizen.

Einstein's second wife, Elsa, was a familiar sight to fans throughout his world travels. One of Einstein’s colleagues said, "Einstein might be the lion among thinkers, but this good woman felt, and rightly so, that to a large extent the world owed him to her."

Wishing you great and continued success!

Sincerely,