Poems List

If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity.
If I were to start taking care of my grooming, I would no longer be my own self ... so the hell with it ...

If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

in Reporter 18 November 1954

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies.

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Einstein addressed the French Philosophical Society in 1922 and included this quote. It’s an example of his negative feelings on Nationalism, which he believed manipulated people into false pride.

If one purges all subsequent additions from the original teachings of the Prophets and Christianity, especially those of the priests, one is left with a doctrine that is capable of curing all the social ills of humankind.

This 1933 statement comes from the Jewish publication Renasterea Noastra, of Romania.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
If there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

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