I really hope Sarver and Kerr give this team one more year

[elindholm]

All I'm saying is that he probably said or wrote something along those lines, a bunch of people repeated it after him in their own words, and now we recognize him as having said it first.

I see no reason at all to believe that that "probably" happened. My assumption is that it's a completely spurious attribution. Remember, everyone on the internet quotes everyone else, so finding several "sources" that match doesn't mean anything.

I'm sure when he said/wrote this, he was referring to life in general, rather than to quantum physics.

Einstein did not make a distinction between physics and "life in general." In fact the opposite is most emphatically the case.

 

[French Fries]

here's one of the few who wants to give this team another go (not that we have a choice otherwise). with chemistry getting better as well as the bench, i honestly genuinely believe we will be much better next year. championship, probably not but we certainly got enough to mix things up in the west...

 

[Errntknght]

I never said that he verbally said those words. It would be awkward, obviously, and it would probably make him sound like an idiot. All I'm saying is that he probably said or wrote something along those lines, a bunch of people repeated it after him in their own words, and now we recognize him as having said it first. I'm sure when he said/wrote this, he was referring to life in general, rather than to quantum physics.

I understood you just fine and by a quote of him saying it I meant something containing that basic idea. (It would probably be in German originally if Einstein said it.) I've read several books by and about Einstein and other books in which he was a major player - and I don't recall him ever making pithy observations on human nature. He was incredibly focused on the nature of the universe and the closest he came to something like that was in characterizing or poking fun at some other physicist or a school of thought in the world of physics.

Now Mark Twain and Will Rogers, for instance, frequently made observations of that general kind, but I would look askance at attribution to either of them merely because 'insanity' is too harsh. That's also the case with Einstein.

 

[lou_skywalker]

here's one of the few who wants to give this team another go (not that we have a choice otherwise). with chemistry getting better as well as the bench, i honestly genuinely believe we will be much better next year. championship, probably not but we certainly got enough to mix things up in the west...

true that but i am afraid $arver's financial desperation would have higher priority....I think one of our core players would go this summer, but I can't see Kerr blowing everything up especially if Gentry is returning.

 

[elindholm]

(It would probably be in German originally if Einstein said it.)

I'm not sure about that. His first jobs were in Switzerland (where most of the educated population speaks English, among other languages of course) and he moved to the U.S. permanently around the start of the war. Also, English is (at least now) the first language of the scientific community. Einstein's famous 1939 letter to Roosevelt (on which he was evidently not first author, but nonetheless contributed to enough to sign) is in fluent, sophisticated English. There's no doubt that he was comfortable with English during a good portion of his life.

I've read several books by and about Einstein and other books in which he was a major player - and I don't recall him ever making pithy observations on human nature.

You evidently don't feel that philosophical struggles with religious questions, a topic he was deeply interested in, fall under the umbrella of "human nature."

He was incredibly focused on the nature of the universe

But not to the exclusion of other issues. Especially during the war, he was an outspoken pacifist and humanist.

Another quote often attributed to Einstein is "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." I can't track down a definitive source for that one either, but it is at least within the realm of something he might say, for example in frustration over the development of nuclear weapons. The quote, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" is endorsed in Einstein memorabilia publications from Princeton, where one would think they would have an incentive to get it right.

I can't tell how definitive http://www.einstein-quotes.com is, but presumably most of the quotes are at least approximately correct, and they give an accurate impression of the wide range of insight of which Einstein was capable.

 

[Errntknght]

Dammit, Eric, I wasn't arguing with you!

I have to concede I was wrong. That certainly does appear to be an authoritative source - that is to say, I recognize a good many of the quotes. I'll have to burn this into my memory so I don't lose this same argument again some time, because it still doesn't strike me as something Einstein would say.

 

[elindholm]

because it still doesn't strike me as something Einstein would say.

Right, I think the "insanity" quote is a load of bunk, and I couldn't find it on that site.

 

[arwillan]

Right, I think the "insanity" quote is a load of bunk, and I couldn't find it on that site.

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26032.html

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/insa...ain/15511.html

It's right there when you open either of those pages, and Einstein is cited on both.

But this whole debacle is beside the point. Someone, at some point, said something close to what I posted. I believe it to be true, and that's why I posted it in relation to the discussion that this whole thread was intended to start.

 

[Andrew]

That Grant Hill small interview on espn.com was interesting. I think he is right when he says the front office probably has no clue what the plan is in the offseason until they get to it.

 

[elindholm]

It's right there when you open either of those pages, and Einstein is cited on both.

Yes, I know, but as I already said in this thread, those sites are far from authoritative and all they do is copy from one another. You can find 100 internet sites all "agreeing" on the same nonsense. Even a semi-serious site like Wikipedia very often lifts whole pages of text verbatim from some other random source that the writer stumbled across.

Someone, at some point, said something close to what I posted.

No argument there!

I believe it to be true, and that's why I posted it in relation to the discussion that this whole thread was intended to start.

Right, I just don't think it's fair to associate Einstein with such a silly expression.