[PW] Tracking down Albert Einstein quotes

[Dennis Lien]

At 02:58 PM 7/9/2007, you wrote:
>Why is it so hard to find the actual citations for quotes by Einstein?
>It seemed likely that the famous "Imagination is more important than
>intelligence." was a simplification and there would be no exact
>citation,



http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s6908.html



* Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, 
whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving 
birth to evolution.

     Originally in "What Life Means to Einstein," Saturday Evening Post, 
October 26, 1929; reprinted in "On Science," in Cosmic Religion, 97.





>so I started with a more elaborate quote that seemed more
>realistic.
>
>"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
>servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
>forgotten the gift."
>
>This gets LOTS of hits in Google and even in Google Books, but just
>about every one of them is without an actual reference.



http://www.uufhc.net/s010819.html

Albert Einstein writes with vision in his 1931 book Cosmic Religion, with 
Other Opinions and Aphorisms: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the 
rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors 
the servant and has forgotten the sacred gift of the intuitive mind."


>  ONE book gives a
>sort of reference... "The Essential Guide to Doing Research  By Zina
>O'Leary" on page 2, it says "Einstein 1931, p. 97" -- but from what book?
>
>http://books.google.com/books?id=D1ZWS2Wnk2QC&pg=PA2&ots=S-ExkxP-eL&dq=%22Intuitive+Mind%22+%22Sacred+Gift%22+%22forgotten+the+gift%22+Einstein+1931&sig=hYbDa2Kond3cJEwXe8jRWwRmfmg
>
>But it's not possible to access the bibliography and see what work of
>Einstein she is referencing. So, I go to Amazon.com to try 'search
>inside the book' and it also doesn't give access to the bibliography.
>Then I go to the library and get a physical copy (lucky it was
>available) and there is NO work by Einstein listed in the bibliography!
>So what good is the page reference with no book?
>
>And this is just the first one I've tried to research. How does one go
>about actually locating citations for quotes by Einstein when everyone
>just tosses off these things with no reliable references?


The first rule of quotations on the Web is that virtually *everyone*
tosses these things off with no reliable references -- it's far from
being unique to Einstein, alas.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu