6. Einstein’s View of Life

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper 1) reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people –first of all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness is wholly 2) dependent, and then for the many unknown to us, to whose destinies we are 3) bound by the ties of 4) sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. I am strongly drawn to a frugal life and am often oppressively aware that I am engrossing an 5) undue amount of the labor of my fellow-men. I regard class 6) distinctions an unjustified and, in the last resort, based on force. I also believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.

To 7) inquire after the meaning or object of one’s own existence or that of all creatures has always seemed to me absurd from an objective point of view. 8)And yet everybody has certain ideals which determine the direction of his endeavors and his judgements. In this sense I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves –this ethical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. 9)The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed to me empty. 10)The trite objects of human efforts –possessions , outward success, luxury –have always seemed to me contemptible.