Is the Universe Friendly?
Albert Einstein
240 words, 323K views, 90 comments
240 words, 323K views, 90 comments
Replies to Comment
On Apr 30, 2014 Mashael wrote :
since it was written BEFORE him, then there is a chance that Einstein knew of the question about a "friendly or unfriendly" universe and was simply expressing his viewpoint. We often do the same today when we consider interesting thoughts of others.
On Jan 13, 2016 Stacy wrote :
Ah, thank you.
On Sep 2, 2013 Malcolm Dean wrote :
Einstein never said this. See Wikiquote, under subheading "Misattributed:"
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein#Misattributed
"[T]he idea that the most important question we can ask is "Is the universe friendly?" dates back much earlier than the attribution to Einstein, for example in Emil Carl Wilm's 1912 book The Problem of Religion he includes the following footnote on p. 114: 'A friend proposed to the late F. W. H. Myers the following question: "What is the thing which above all others you would like to know? If you could ask the Sphinx one question, and only one, what would the question be?" After a moment's silence Myers replied: "I think it would be this: Is the universe friendly?"'