[Ads-l] USA Today Fact Check article on Einstein attributed quotation

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Apr 28 21:24:09 UTC 2021


> On Apr 28, 2021, at 3:39 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> Cool!  What Einstein quote will they do next?
> 
> If USA Today decides to examine another quotation commonly attributed
> to Einstein then the paper would find a wide choice. The article does
> mention additional quotations that are discussed in my book.
> 
> Thanks to USA Today and journalist Nayeli Lomeli. The article contains
> a link to the book (on Amazon) and to the QI website.
> 
> [Begin excerpt from USA Today]
> In the book, O'Toole analyzes six quotes supposedly uttered by Einstein:
> 
> "Not everything that counts can be counted."
> 
> "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
> again and expecting different results."
> 
> "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb
> a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
> 
> "Two things inspire me to awe – the starry heavens above and the moral
> universe within."
> 
> "Education is that which remains, if one has forgotten everything he
> learned in school."
> 
> "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a
> minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s
> two hours. That’s relativity."
> [End excerpt from USA Today]
> 
> The QI website has more examples:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/category/albert-einstein/
> 
> Garson

I was going to nominate another one, which I see Garson has under its own entry rather than Einstein’s:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/

I'm familiar with it in a slightly more specific version, applying to explanations or theories, which essentially turns Occam’s razor into a double-edged blade:
“An explanation should be as simple as possible but no simpler”

Not Einstein, but someone.  

LH
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