ReLiGiOuS ViEwS

Even though I was raised Jewish I did not believe in Judaism. I simply admired the beauty of nature and the universe. This is what I once wrote in a letter, dated March 24, 1954, "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
I also made a response to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the International Synagogue in New York which read, "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."
I also expressed my admiration for Buddhism which I said had the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

My PoLiTiCaL vIeWs

I considered myself a pacifist and humanitarian, and in later years, a committed democratic socialist.I once said, "I believe Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence for fighting for our cause, but by non-participation of anything you believe is evil."

I opposed tyrannical forms of government, and for this reason (and my Jewish background), opposed the Nazi regime and fled Germany shortly after it came to power. I initially favored construction of the atomic bomb, in order to ensure that Hitler did not do so first, and even sent a letter to President Roosevelt, encouraging him to initiate a program to create a nuclear weapon. Roosevelt responded to this by setting up a committee for the investigation of using uranium as a weapon, which in a few years was superseded by the Manhattan Project.

ThEsE wErE sOmE oF mY qUoTeS

I DiEd

On April 17, 1955, I started feeling chest pains and I went to the Princeton Hospital. I died early the next morning in my sleep leaving the Generalized Theory of Gravitation unsolved. My body was cremated, and my ashes were scattered in an undisclosed location. Before the cremation, however, my brain was saved by Dr. Thomas Harvey, a pathologist at the hospital who wanted to know what it was that made me a genius. He performed an autopsy on my brain but he found nothing unusual. In 1999 however a team at McMaster University revealed that my parietal operculum region was missing and, to compensate, my inferior parietal lobe was 15% wider than normal. The inferior parietal region is responsible for mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and imagery of movement.