He is mostly remembered as a great scientist, but as he said himself, "My life is divided between equations and politics." To my mind, he personified the wisdom inherent in modern humanistic philosophy. Generally thought of as the greatest physicist of the 20th century, he was among the most profound and influential social thinkers as well. Although he used the word "God" frequently, he used it in the metaphorical sense that genuinely spiritual people do (such people are overwhelmingly agnostic and/or secular, as he was - and rare as hen's teeth among the "religious.").

A strong internationalist, Einstein felt that "nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind" (page 144). He appreciated the need for state sovereignty to protect oneself from imperialism, but loathed the transformation of this need into the myth of nationalist chauvinism. A strong supporter of Israel, Einstein nonetheless felt that he would rather "see a reasonable agreement with the Arabs based on living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state." In a letter to Chaim Weizman, Israel's first President, Einstein wrote, "If we do not succeed in finding the path of honest cooperation and coming to terms with the Arabs, we will not have learned anything from our two-thousand-year ordeal and will deserve the fate which will beset us." When Weizman died in 1952, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion asked Einstein if he would be the President of Israel, but he declined. A few years later, Einstein noted presciently, "The most important aspect of [Israel's] policy must be our ever-present, manifest desire to institute complete equality for the Arab citizens living in our midst. The attitude we adopt toward the Arab minority will provide the real test of our moral standards as a people."

Roger Tucker