The wisdom of Albert Einstein

Happy birthday, Albert!

Albert Einstein, maker of dubious claims regarding fish.

It's Albert Einstein's birthday today, so in honour of his genius here's a nugget of wisdom from the great man himself:

“Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Well first of all, Albert, in that case the fish would be right because fish are stupid. And secondly, if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it won’t think it's stupid at all, because fish lack the necessary level of intelligence to be aware that they are being judged.

So whatever you think of it, the fish would live its whole life thinking typical fish-like thoughts such as, ‘Oh, there’s that nasty big fish again. I’d better swim away before it eats me,’ and stuff like that. It certainly won't be thinking, ‘Oh, no! That dude thinks I’m stupid because I can’t climb trees. Sigh, he’s really undermined my self-confidence with his hurtful remarks.’

So come on, Einstein! Get your facts straight in future before you start making such factually inaccurate claims!

In all seriousness, despite the flawed logic of Einstein's fish quote, he nevertheless made many amusingly entertaining quotes throughout his life, so here are a few of my favourite Einstein quotes:

1) "Two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."


2) "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute, but let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity!"


3) "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."


4) "Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

A fish with low self esteem due to thoughtless hurtful remarks.

5) "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."


6) "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."


7) "We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."


8) "I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones."

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Some of the quotes show that as well as being a genius, Einstein also had a sense of humour, and it's pretty cool to know that a genius can also see the funny side of life.

Incidentally, if you're the sort of person who has trouble remembering birthdays then Einstein's birthday (March 14th) is easy to remember as he was born on Pi day. Pi to two decimal places is 3.14 which is also the American way of writing March 14th.

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