Einstein: “on Comprehending the Incomprehensible”

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”

~ Albert Einstein (14 March 1879–18 April 1955)
German-born theoretical physicist,philosopher
and author.

* While this often-quoted version is given in Einstein: A Biography (1954) by Antonina Vallentin, p. 24, as from Einstein’s article “Physics and Reality” in Journal of the Franklin Institute (March 1936), in the actual article “Physics and Reality,” reprinted in Out of My Later Years (1956), the quote is:

One may say “the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

(This rendition reads as if he is quoting or paraphrasing the statement of someone else — perhaps Immanuel Kant, whom he cites in the next sentence.)

Other variants:

“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.”

“One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

*As quoted in Disturbing the Universe (1979), by Freeman Dyson Ch. 5

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.”

*As quoted in Speaking of Science (2000) by Michael Fripp

~cave canem~ vvvv

~ by the Dead Dog Barking on 10/27/2010.