I saw a quote on a friend’s Facebook page, allegedly from Albert Einstein. It sounded a bit more metaphysical than I would’ve expected from a scientist and, having experience tracking down questionable quotes that were attributed to Einstein and other famous people, I figured the quote was bogus.
So I looked up the quote:
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 separated 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. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
It turns out WikiQuote says Einstein did say something resembling this, though not quite as poetic:
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 separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.
The quote is said to have come from a letter Einstein wrote to Robert S. Marcus, a father grieving over the death of his son. WikiQuote says it ran in the The New York Times (29 March 1972) and The New York Post (28 November 1972). The blog Letters of Note claims to have an image of the letter, written on February 12, 1950. Flickr user Speaking of Faith has what he calls a photograph of the letter as well as Einstein’s handwritten draft. I don’t know enough about Einstein or his handwriting to be able to authenticate these materials but since they’re stamped “A. Einstein Archive 60-425” it appears they may be legitimate.