Albert Einstein; Ideas and Opinions Quiz

Answer: Fear, morality, cosmic religious feeling

In the book "Ideas and Opinions", Einstein stressed that a cosmic religious feeling could not be explained to those who were entirely without it. He calls cosmic religious feeling the "strongest and noblest motive for scientific research".

Answer: True

This passage was delivered on the occasion of Gandhi's seventieth birthday in 1939, nine years before his assassination.

Answer: $3,000

His pension of $7,500 per year was refused by Einstein as being "too generous" and he had it reduced to $6,000 per year. He bought a modest house, walked to work, and never owned a car.

Answer: Arms manufacturers

Einstein writes: "One has to realize that the powerful industrial groups concerned in the manufacture of arms are doing their best in all countries to prevent the peaceful settlement of international disputes, and that rulers can only achieve this great end if they are sure of the vigorous support of the majority of their people".

Answer: False

Einstein was quite emphatic about this. He wrote, in 1944: "The Germans as an entire people are responsible for these mass murders and must be punished as a people if there is justice in the world and if the consciousness of collective responsibility is not to perish from the earth entirely".

Answer: To be an example

In a letter to a young girl in 1934, Einstein writes: "There is too much education altogether, especially in American schools. The only rational way of teaching is to be an example-if one can't help it, a warning example".

Answer: Money

He writes, in 1934: "I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. " and "Money only appeals to selfishness and irresistibly invites abuse".

Answer: That they be sent to the front in the next war

He felt to send the women to war would be "a novelty in this dreary sphere of infinite confusion".

Answer: Give it to a world government founded by Russia, the U.S., and Great Britain

At the time he wrote this, nuclear weapons were not nearly as powerful as they are today, and he thought at least a third of the world's population would survive a global conflict.

Answer: Lame; blind

Einstein intimated time and again that the belief in a personal God who rewards and punishes is a stepping stone to a level of cosmic religious feeling, shedding the self of the need for personal benefit.
If Einstein's thoughts interest you, read "Ideas and Opinions", a compilation of his writings and speeches on various topics.