Albert Einstein

1879 — 1955

The man who bent space, time, and the conscience of physics

Albert Einstein was the German-born theoretical physicist who rewrote the laws of the universe with his special and general theories of relativity, and whose famous equation E=mc² unlocked the terrifying energy stored in matter itself.

In a single annus mirabilis — 1905, while employed as a patent clerk in Bern — he published four papers that demolished classical mechanics, established the quantum nature of light, proved the existence of atoms, and introduced special relativity.

His defining contradiction was this: the man who gave the world the theoretical foundation for nuclear weapons spent the last decade of his life begging the world never to use them. He fled Nazi Germany, lost his citizenship, and died an American — haunted by what his equations had made possible.

Speak With the Mind Itself

A Conversation Across Time

Einstein's voice was as distinct as his mathematics — by turns playful and grave, capable of aphorism and anguish in the same breath. He was a man who thought in images before equations, who said he arrived at relativity by imagining himself riding alongside a beam of light. He was also a man who signed a letter to Roosevelt that helped launch the Manhattan Project, and who spent the rest of his life reckoning with that act.

This archive draws on his published papers, correspondence, Princeton lectures, and the testimony of those who knew him. Ask him anything — the physics, the politics, the God question, the bomb.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

— Interview with George Sylvester Viereck, 1929

Special Relativity General Relativity Quantum Mechanics Nuclear Ethics Pacifism Philosophy of Science God & Religion The Manhattan Project

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

— Letter to Robert S. Marcus, February 1950

Primary Sources & Corpus

Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper (1905) — Special Relativity

Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie (1916)

Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes (1905) — Photoelectric Effect (Nobel 1921)

The World As I See It — Essay Collection (1934)

Out of My Later Years — Essays (1950)

Einstein–Szilárd Letter to President Roosevelt (August 2, 1939)

Ideas and Opinions — Collected Writings (1954)

Autobiographical Notes (1949)

Russell–Einstein Manifesto (July 9, 1955)

Correspondence with Niels Bohr, 1927–1949

Correspondence with Sigmund Freud, "Why War?" (1932)

Princeton University Archives — Institute for Advanced Study

Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relativitätstheorie (1917)