
“That happy age when a man can be idle with impunity.”
"Rip Van Winkle".
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
The Thirty Years War
“That happy age when a man can be idle with impunity.”
"Rip Van Winkle".
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)
The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice lists this as "probably not by Einstein". However, this post from quoteinvestigator.com http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/29/common-sense/ traces it to a reasonably plausible source: the second part of a three-part series by Lincoln Barrett (former editor of 'Life' magazine) titled "The Universe and Dr. Einstein" in Harper's Magazine, from May 1948, in which Barrett wrote "But as Einstein has pointed out, common sense is actually nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down in the mind prior to the age of eighteen." Since he didn't put the statement in quotes it could be a paraphrase, and "as Einstein has pointed out" makes it unclear whether Einstein said this personally to Barrett or Barrett was recalling a quote of Einstein's he'd seen elsewhere. In any case, the interview was republished in a book of the same title, and Einstein wrote a foreword which praised Barrett's work on the book, so it's likely he read the quote about common sense and at least had no objection to it, whether or not he recalled making the specific comment.
Unsourced variant: Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Disputed
Il ne s'est jamais rien fait de grand dans le monde que par le courage et la fermeté d'un seul homme qui brave les préjugés de la multitude.
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 43, 27082 2892-7]
On prejudices
“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
“There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed.”
No. 86 (12 January 1751)
The Rambler (1750–1752)
Archimedes or the Future of Physics (1927)
Context: The question of the reversibility of natural processes provides the key to a great intellectual struggle which is now behind the complexities of philosophic and scientific thought. The issue can be formulated thus: Is there a real temporal process in nature? Is the passage of irreversible time a necessary element in any view of the structure of nature? Or, alternatively, is the subjective experience of time a mere illusion of the mind which cannot be given objective expression? These are not metaphysical questions that can still be neglected with impunity. For just as Einstein made his advance by analysing conceptions such as simultaneity, which had been thought to be adequately understood for the purposes of experimental science, so the next development of physical theory will probably be made by carrying on the analysis of time from the point at which Einstein left it.
“Even the strongest spirits have the moments of irresistible weakness”
Source: The Cave (2000), p. 15 (Vintage 2003)
“The force of circumstances… is stronger than even the strongest government”
Vol. 1, Book II, Chapter 8. "Law. Religion. Military System. Economic Condition. Nationality"
The History of Rome - Volume 1
Context: The force of circumstances... is stronger than even the strongest government: the language and customs of the Latin people immediately shared (with Rome) its ascendancy in Italy, and already began to undermine the other Italian Nationalities.
“Being a Jew, you realize your strongest weapon is your mind.”
"Bang Your Head" book
“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”