Excerpted from [U.S.]Walter•Isaacson: Einstein: His Life and Universe, translated by Zhang Butian
In Munich, although the penetration of Bavarian spirit into everyday life had not yet gone quite so deep, that Prussian-style glorification of the army was already running rampant. Many children liked to play at being soldiers. When the army passed by to the sound of flutes and drums, children would pour into the street, join the procession, and march along step by step. Einstein was not like that. The first time he saw such a spectacle, he burst into tears. “I certainly didn’t want to grow up to become such a pitiful fellow,” he told his parents. As he later explained, “The mere fact that a person can march along in a formation with a military band, in high good spirits, is enough by itself to make me despise him. That he has a brain is only the result of a misunderstanding.”[1]
[1] Einstein, “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (1930): 194, reprinted as “The World As I See It,” in Einstein 1954, 10. According to Frank: “To him, such marching was the movement of human beings being forced to become machines.” Frank 1947, 8.
Latest comments
- Ji Zha
2009-08-18 08:37:31
“The mere fact that a person can march along in a formation with a military band, in high good spirits, is enough by itself to make me despise him. That he has a brain is only the result of a misunderstanding.” Old Einstein is really funny.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
Leave a Reply