Bert McCoy's
"MyTeaching Resources"
English 9-12
  • Home
    • Bert McCoy Quotes Page 1
    • Bert McCoy quotes Page 2
    • Bert McCoy Meditation Quotes >
      • Bert McCoy Non-duality Quotes
      • Bert McCoy Self Realization Quotes
      • Bert McCoy Meditation Quotes
      • Present moment quotes
    • Home #2
    • Home #3
    • Top 10 Rules for Success >
      • Five Methods to Notetaking
      • Differentiated Instruction Depth and Complexity
      • Note To Self/ Letter to Self
      • Classroom Rules and Expectations
      • Vocabulary (SAT 100)
      • SAT/ Vocabulary #2
      • Vocabulary SAT/CAHSEE/CST
      • Sat Vocabulary Words
      • Vocabulary Roots
      • Thesis Statements
      • MLA Formatting
      • Writing a Business Letter
      • Figurative Language
      • Transition Word List
      • Transition Word List
      • Transition Word List
      • Literature Terms
      • Literature Terms
      • Glossary of Literature Terms
      • Forshadowing
      • Context Clues
      • Mysteries of vernacular
      • Vocabulary Prefix
      • Science Fiction & Fantasy Stories (Tor.com)
      • Russian writers
      • Some Favorite Songs
      • Some Favorite UFO Video Clips
      • Storyboards
      • The Journey of Purpose
      • youarecreators
      • Absolute Motivation #1
      • Absolute Motivation #2
      • Business World Material
      • Peaceful Warrior Quotes
      • Goal-setting
      • Less Brown
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #1
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #2
      • Who Moved My Cheese/ #3
      • Secrets of Success
      • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
      • The Four Agreements:
      • The Four Agreements
      • John Wooden's, "Pyramid of Success"
  • Teaching Stories
    • Teaching Stories/ Quotes >
      • Spiritual Paths
    • Mooji Stories
    • "The Emperor's Three Questions" by Leo Tolstoy
    • Avadhuta Gita >
      • Avadhuta Gita
    • Teaching Stories
    • Mullah Nasruddin Stories
    • The Bhagavad Gita vs "To be or not to be." >
      • The Bhagavad-Gita
    • Vedanta Teachings >
      • Advaita / Nonduality Quotes
      • Advaita
    • The Emerald Tablets/Alchemist
    • Aesop's Fables
    • Koans
    • The Oarsman
    • The American Tourist Story
    • The Violinist
    • The Moth Presents
    • inspirational Stories
  • Cool Quotes
    • Rumi Quotes >
      • Non-Dual Quotes
      • Present Moment Quotes
    • Inspirational Quotations 1
    • Inspirational Quotations 2
    • Cool QUOTES!
    • Motivational Quotes
    • Wisdom
  • Film Studies 2019-2020
    • Film Study Syllabus >
      • Film Study Terms
      • Film Vocabulary 2
    • Parasite Film
    • Arrival Film
    • Film Posters >
      • Denis Villeneuve
    • Film Studies Films >
      • Movies for Film Class
    • Film History/The Lumiere Brothers and more...
    • Film Making Quotes >
      • Lucy Film
      • First Films of Great Directors >
        • Editing (Cuts)
        • Federico Fellini
        • Jean-Luc Godard
        • Screenplay Theme
      • Hollywood Casting and Film
      • Sam Mendes 1917 Film
      • Rotten Tomatoes Best films
      • Screenwriting Sample Scrips
    • Movie Etiquette >
      • Character Types
      • Turner Classic Movies
      • Free Movies
      • Pulp Fiction Film
    • Film Agenda 2019-2020 >
      • Permission Letter
      • Filmmaking and Advice
      • Breaking Into Hollywood
      • Film Schools
      • Filmsite
    • Film Quotes >
      • The 100 greatest movie quotes of all time
    • Cinematography >
      • Film Shots
      • Camera Shots
    • Famous Film Directors >
      • Directors Favorite Films
      • John Ford
      • Jean-Luc Godard >
        • Breathless >
          • Breathless
      • François Truffaut
      • Female Film Directors
      • Akira Kurosawae
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
      • David Fincher
      • Christopher Nolan
      • Fassbinder Films
      • Coen Brothers
      • Martin Scorsese
      • Steven Speilberg
      • Quentin Tarantino
      • Directors/Producers
      • Andrei Tarkovsky
      • Stanly Kubrick >
        • Stanley Kubrick
      • The Wachowskis
    • The Seven Stages of Film Production
    • Austin Film Festival
    • Sundance Film Winners >
      • Sundance Film Festival
    • Inside The Actor's Studio
    • Television Studies
    • Screenwriting Tips
    • Narrative Design and Terms >
      • Film Study Narrative Design
      • The Hero's Journey >
        • What is an Archetype?
        • Hero's Journey
        • The Hero's Journey #1
        • Hero's Journey #2
        • Hero's Journey #3
      • Mise En Scene >
        • Mise En Scene
      • Peaky Blinders
      • Peaceful Warrior
      • Peaceful Warrior Quotes
      • Peaceful Warrior Script
      • Peaceful Warrior
      • Groundhog Day >
        • Time Loop Films
        • If today was your last day?
        • Discussion Questions Film Studies
        • Character Counts Film Studies
      • The Legend of Bagger Vance/The Gita >
        • Production Notes Legend of Bagger Vance
      • Meet Joe Black >
        • Death Takes A Holiday 1934
      • Alfred Hitchcock >
        • Alfred Hitchcock
        • Alfred Hitchcock Presnts
        • Dial M for Murder
        • Psycho >
          • Psycho 1960
          • Ed Gain Psycho
        • The Birds
        • Rear Window 1954 >
          • Disturbia
        • Vertigo >
          • Vertigo 1958
        • Rope
        • To Catch a Thief
        • Notorious 1946
        • Strangers on a Train 1951
        • North by Northwest 1959
        • To Catch a Thief/ Hitchcock
        • The 39 Steps 1935
        • The Lady Vanishes 1938
      • Marathon Man
      • Poltergeist >
        • Poltergeist
      • Jaws >
        • Jaws
      • 2001: A Space Odyssey >
        • Stanley Kubric
      • 100-Foot Journey >
        • French Laundry Restaurant
        • The Hundred Foot Journey
        • 100 Foot Journey
      • Ratatouille Quotes
      • Close Encounters of the Third Kind
      • Documentary >
        • Basquiat
        • filmumentaries
        • 200 Free Documentaries
      • 42 The Jackie Robinson Story
      • It's A Wonderful Life >
        • it's a Wonderful Life
        • It's a Wonderful Life #2
        • It's A Wonderful Life Screenplay PDF
      • I Am Legend
      • The Matrix >
        • The Matrix Reloaded
        • The Matrix The Animatrix
      • Inception
      • Avatar
      • War of the Worlds >
        • H.G. Wells
        • War of The Worlds Vocabulary
        • War of the Worlds 2
      • Forever Strong Rugby >
        • Forever Strong
        • History of Rugby
      • Hoosiers >
        • Hoosiers
      • Goal The Dream Begins
      • Aliens and Cowboys >
        • The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
      • Film Noir >
        • 12 Angry Men 1957
        • Casablanca >
          • Casablanca
          • Casablanca Review
        • Film Noir >
          • Film Noir Titles
        • Strangers on a Train/ Hitchcock >
          • Strangers on a Train/ Hitchcock
        • The Maltese Falcon
      • Charlie Chaplin >
        • Charlie Chaplin
        • New Page
      • JFK Assassination 1 >
        • Robert Yeoman
        • JFK/Oliver Stone
        • JFK Assassination 2
        • Robert Richardson and JfK
      • Miracle >
        • Flow
      • Patch Adams >
        • Patch Adams 2
      • Gattaca >
        • Eugenics
        • Gattaca
        • Gattaca filming Locations
      • Point Break
      • The Dark Knight >
        • Batman 1
        • Batman 2
      • Inception
      • Finding Forrester
      • The Ring
      • Blade Runner 2049 >
        • Blade Runner
      • Rocky >
        • Top 25 Cult Films:
        • Screenwriting software
      • Films To Consider: >
        • Breathless, by Jean-Luc Godard (1960)
        • Interstellar
        • What Dreams May Come
        • Powder
        • Forrest Gump
        • Mr. Holland's Opus >
          • Vimeo Short Films
          • Sketchbooks for Class
        • The Shining
        • Breakfast at Tiffiffany's
        • Indiana Jones
        • Rain Man
        • French Kiss
        • Silence of the Lambs
        • The Hunger Games/Quotes >
          • Suzanne Collins
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games Seneca
          • The Hunger Games/ Questions
          • Catching Fire
          • The Hunger Games
          • The Hunger Games/ Chapters
          • The Hunger Games/ Characters, Facts, Themes,
        • The Last Samurai
        • In the Mood for Love
        • Seabiscuit
        • Malcolm X
        • 3 Days of the Condor 1975
        • Das Boot
        • Crimson Tide
        • U-571
        • The Hunt For Red October
        • Mr. & Mrs. Smith
        • Promised Land
        • Wonder Woman 2017
        • Planet of the Apes Films
        • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
        • A Fist Full of Dollars
        • The Conformist >
          • The Conformist
        • Peter Sellers
        • Gladiator
        • The Last Emperor 1987/ Bertolucci
        • Phenomenon 1996
        • Back to the Future
        • The Butler
        • Contagion 2011
        • Speed Racer
        • The Rainmaker
        • Remember the Titans
        • In the Mood for Love
        • 1984 George Orwell
        • Lord of the Rings Films
      • Citizen Kane >
        • Citizen Kane #2
      • The Perks of Being a Wallflower
      • They're Here!
      • The Wild Wild West! >
        • John Wayne / True Grit
        • Clint Eastwood/ High Plains Drifter
      • The Pride of the Yankees 1943
    • German Expressionism in Film >
      • Fritz Lang
      • Dadaist Films
    • Film as Social and Cultural History
    • Filmmaker IQ
    • National Archive Films
    • Atlas Shrugged /Ayn Rand
    • 2016-17 Film Play List
    • Scary Movies >
      • Horror
      • Flowers in the Attic/ Parental Responsibilities
      • Ghost of the Lagoon by Armstrong Sperry
      • Frankenstein 1910 Silent Movie
      • Free Movies
      • My Favorite Directors...Best Directors >
        • My Favorite Actors
    • Dreamworks
    • How to find the theme (s)
    • Man vs Nature Films
    • Film Studies
    • Film Set Lingo
    • Film Studies Lectures
    • Sound Design
    • Film Sound
    • Film Editing
    • Film Lighting Terms and Techniques >
      • Film Lighting
    • Acting Techniques
    • James Bond
    • Film Studies/ Film as Literature (FAL) >
      • filmsite.org
      • Classics Movies #1 >
        • Classic Movies #2
      • Buster Keaton
      • Buster keaton vs Charlie Chaplin
      • Sidney Portier Movies
    • Film Techniques and Terminology
    • Zorba the Greek
    • The Hollywood Reporter
    • Education Movies
    • WAR!
    • Braveheart
    • Glory Road
    • Historical and Period Drama Movies
    • Marlon Brando/On The Water-front
    • Mutiny on the Bounty
    • Stages and Archetypes of the Hero's Journey
    • October Sky
    • Spy Movies
    • Stephen Fry
    • Paper Towns
    • From Weak to Strong Movies
    • The Secret Life of Bees
    • Environmental Movies
    • Sports Movies >
      • A River That Runs Through It >
        • Fly Fishing Quotes
      • Money Ball >
        • Money Ball #2
      • Dogville
      • Goal / History of soccer >
        • Goal (page two)
      • Teamwork Movies
      • www.ronaldothefilm.com
      • We Are Marshall
      • Pele
      • Chariots of Fire
      • Remember the Titans
    • Lance Armstrong Doping
    • FAL/ ?
    • Madame Bovary
  • English 9 Curriculum Map 2018-19
    • Siddhartha >
      • Siddhartha Vocabulary Words
    • English 9 Unit 1 >
      • Video Games >
        • Video Gaming
        • Video Games #2
        • Game Programmer
        • Video Game Jobs
        • Video Games/Presi/Slideshare
      • Video Games
      • Story Telling /Moth
      • 10 Rules/Carmichael
    • The Cast of Amontillado
    • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian >
      • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Vocabulary Words
    • Direct and Indirect Characterization
    • Overly Sarcastic Productions The Classics
    • English 9 Unit 2 >
      • Food >
        • BBC Fast Food Baby
        • BBC The Truth About Food
        • BBC Beef Burgers
        • GMOs
        • Food
        • Food
        • Food
      • Richard Wright/Blackboy >
        • Black Boy by Richard Wright
      • The Age of the Essay Paul Graham
    • English 9 Unit 3 >
      • Siddhartha >
        • Siddhartha
        • The Odyssey Vocabulary Words >
          • The Odyssey Movie
          • Create a Myth Assignment
          • Odyssey Timelines/ AWESOME!
          • Odyssey Audio
          • The Odyssey/60 Second Recap
          • Freewill vs Determinism quotes
          • Freewill vs Determinism
          • Greek Gods
          • Greek Vases
          • Ancient Greeks
          • Greek Gods
          • The Greeks/Gods
          • Greek Gods/Godesses
          • Greek Gods and their Characteristics
          • Greek Gods/Videos
          • Odyssey
          • The Odyssey and the Hero's Journey
          • The Odyssey Presentations
      • Greek and Roman >
        • Untitled
        • What is theater?
        • Ancient Rome
        • The Gladiator Graveyard
        • Spartacus Behing the Myth
        • Helen of Troy
        • Worst Jobs Roman/Anglo-Saxon
        • Ancient Greek/Roman Music
        • Ancient Greek Homes
        • Rome/History/BBC >
          • Marcus Aurelius
          • The Stoics
          • Metal Detecting Roman/Greek
        • Oedipus The King >
          • Oedipus the King/Prezi
        • Homer, The Iliad
        • The Norse Gods
    • English 9 Unit 4 >
      • Graffiti >
        • Bansky
        • Bansky Art Sold fo
        • Street Art
        • The Top Street and Graffiti Artists to Watch in 2015
        • Graffiti Analysis
        • Anamorphic Graffiti Illusions by Odeith – Fubiz
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • English 9 Unit 5/ Poetry >
      • Various Poets
    • English 9 Other >
      • English 9 Essay
  • English 12 2017-18
    • Restorative Justice >
      • Juvenile Justice Essay Resources
      • Adam Foss
      • Racial Profiling >
        • Racial Poetry
        • Racial Profiling
      • Racism
      • Bullying #1
      • Race/Racism/Bullying
      • Jim Crow Museum
      • What Would You Do?
      • Bullying
      • Bullying
    • Eng 12/ Life after high school >
      • Personal Statement
      • Vision Board Assignment >
        • Vision Board Project
      • UC Writing Prompts/Journals
      • Hidden Intellectualism by Gerald Graff
      • Job Applications/Business Letter
      • Interview Questions and Answers >
        • Interview Q & A
        • Interview Q & A
      • Job Seeking/Resume/Q and A
      • FAFSA
      • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
    • Unit 2 Week (3-5) "College Application Essay" >
      • Commencement Speeches #1
      • Commencement Speeches #2
      • Great Speeches
    • Zoot Suit >
      • Zoot Suit 2
    • 1984 Language, Gendetr, and Culture in George Orwell's 1984 >
      • 1984 Key facts, characters, themes, motifs, and symbolism
    • Brave New World 2016 >
      • Brave New World 2017 1
      • Gender, Language, and Identity
      • Brave New World Character Name meanings
      • BNW Vocabulary
      • BNW Chomsky
      • Brave New World Vocabulary Words
      • Brave New World 2016 2
      • The Perennial Philosophy/Huxly
      • Mystic Quotes
      • Papaji Advaita Vedanta
      • Nissargadatta
      • Vedanta Advaita Quotes
      • Kristnamurti Quotes
      • Sola BNW
      • Iron Maiden/ BNW
    • Into The Wild 2016-17
    • Into the Wild/ 11/15 >
      • Into the Wild/ Characters >
        • Into The Wild/Characters >
          • Into the Wild/Themes, Characters
      • Into the Wild/ Vocab
      • Into the Wild/ Quotes
      • into The Wild/ Chapter Reviews
      • Into The Wild/ Symbolism
      • Into To Wild/ Themes
      • Into The Wild/ Glossary
      • Into the Wild/ Quiz 1
      • Into the Wild/Jon Krakauer >
        • Is Ignorance Bliss?
        • Into the Wild/ Essential questions
        • Into the Wild/20/20 >
          • Into the Wild/Eckhart Tolle
        • Chris McCandless Articles/Outside Magazine
        • Into the Wild/Jon Krakaur
        • Into the Wild/2015/Nomads
        • Into the Wild
        • Into the Wild/The Big Two-hearted River/Nick Adams
        • Into the Wild/Who Am I
        • Into the Wild/Pierre Bezuhov/From War and Peace
        • Into The Wild/Various
        • Into the Wild/2015/Rush
        • Into the Wild/Tolstoy
        • Into the Wild/Springsteen
        • Into the Wild/Jack London
        • Into the Wild/Emerson
        • To Build a Fire/Jack Londen
        • Into the Wild/Louis L' Amour
        • Into the Wild/Thoreau
        • Into the Wild/Boris Pasternak
        • Into the Outdoors
        • Into the Wild/Alaska Denali
        • Into the Wild/Snowboarding
        • Into the Wild/2014/15/Supertramp
        • Into the Wild/Vocabulary
        • Into The Wild/Themes >
          • Into the Wild/Themes
        • Into The Wild/Glossary
        • Into the Wild/ Papaji
        • Into the Wild/Eckhart Tolle
        • Into the Wild
        • Into the Wild (Prezi)
        • Into the Wild/John Muir
        • Into the Wild/Quiz
        • Into the Wild /Movie Questions
        • Into the Wild/ Q&A
        • Into the Wild/ Climbing Videos
        • Into the Wild/Moose
    • Standards
    • English 12 Syllabus
    • English 12 2016-17 >
      • English 12a Final Essay
      • Letter To Myself >
        • Letter to Myself
        • Letter to Myself
    • English 12 Essay 2015
    • History of the English Church >
      • History of English
      • History of English
      • The History of English >
        • BBC Anglo-Saxons >
          • Anglo Saxons >
            • Anglo Saxon Lyre
            • Anglo-Saxon The History of English
            • Worst Jobs in History (Middle Ages)
            • The Worst Jobs in History--The Dark Age - Part 1-6
            • The Worst Jobs In History - 1x03 - Tudor
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Roman & Anglo-Saxon
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Medieval
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Tudor
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Stuart
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Georgian
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Victorian
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Urban
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Royal
            • The Worst Jobs In History-- Industrial
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Maritime
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Rural
            • The Worst Jobs In History--Christmas
            • The Medievil Mind >
              • The Medieval Belief
              • The Medievil Treasures BBC
              • The Medieval Power
              • Age of Conquest
              • The Crusades
              • The Black Plague
              • AEngla Land
              • Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons
              • The Staffordshire Hoard
            • Beowulf >
              • In Search of Beowulf
              • Beowulf PPt Presentations
              • British Literature Learning Videos >
                • Paganism vs Christianity
                • The Germanic Tribes
                • Beowulf & the Anglo-Saxons (1-8)
            • The Canterbury Tales
        • Language
    • English 12 Reading >
      • Epic of Gilgamesh Audio 2000 BC.
      • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Late 14th-century
      • The Wife of Bath's Tale 1405-1410 from canterbury Tales
      • The Passionate Shepard
      • Shakespeare 1564-1616 >
        • Shakespeare/ Tudor England
        • Novels/Plays >
          • Hamlet's, "To Be or Not to Be"
          • A Midsummer Night's Dream
          • Macbeth
          • Macbeth
          • Macbeth Act by Act
          • Shakespeare Poems
          • Globe Theater
          • Shakespeare Sonnets
          • Sonnet 1
          • Sonnet 1 Blog:
          • Sonnet 18
          • Sonnet 29
          • Sonnet 29 Blog:
          • Sonnet 75
          • Sonnet 75 Blog
          • Sonnet 130
      • Romeo & Juliet/ Shakespeare 4/15 >
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Shmoop Resources
        • Shakespeare Glossary
        • Shakespeare's Globe
        • Quotes about Shakespeare >
          • Shakespeare Quotes
          • Shakespeare Castles
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Characters
        • Romeo & Juliet/ Themes, Motifs, Symbolism
        • Elizabethan Clothing
        • Royal Shakespeare Company
        • Romeo and Juliet 1
        • Romeo and Juliet 2
        • Romeo and Juliet 3
        • Romeo and Juliet/ 60 Second
    • Six Centuries of Verse: Metaphysical & Devotional Poets >
      • Ben Johnson
      • John Donne
      • Andrew Marvell >
        • Jonathan Swift
        • A Modest Proposal
      • To His Coy Mistress
    • Romanticism 1790-1850 >
      • Romantic Spirit
      • Mysticism
      • William Blake
      • William Wordsworth
      • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
      • John Keats
      • Percy Bysshe Shelley
      • Mary Shelley
      • Lord Byron
      • James Joyce
  • My Favorite People
    • Favorite Artists >
      • Brian Dettmer Book Cutting
      • Bansky
      • Julian Schnabel
      • Phillip Guston
      • David Salle
      • Robert Motherwell
      • Picaso
      • Raushenburg
      • Francisco Clemente
      • Joseph Beuys
      • Cy Twombly
      • Jean Michel Basquiat
      • Keith Haring
      • Kenny Scharf
      • Kaws
      • Sun Xun
      • L' Arte
      • Richard Serra
    • AESOP
    • Adyashanti
    • Maya Angelou
    • Jane Austin
    • James Baldwin
    • Bansky Quotes
    • Coleman Barks
    • Joseph Beuys
    • Harold Bloom >
      • Harol Bloom/ How to read and why
    • Jorge Luis Borges
    • Robert Bly 1 >
      • Robert Bly 2
    • David Bowie
    • Ray Bradberry >
      • There Will Come Soft Rains
      • Usher II
      • The Veldt
      • Marionettes Inc.
      • Fehrenheit 451
      • Fahrenheit 451 Vocabulary
      • Fahrenheit 451 Quotes
    • Russell Brand >
      • Russell Brand
    • David Brooks
    • Barbara Brodsky
    • James Brown
    • Buddha >
      • Buddha
    • Warren Buffet
    • James Cameron
    • Albert Camus
    • Jack Canfield
    • George Carlin
    • Lewis Carrol
    • Caroline Casey
    • Paulo Coelho/Alchemist >
      • The Alchemist by
      • Paulo Coelho
    • John Coltrane >
      • John Coltrane
    • Steven Covey >
      • Steven Covey
      • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People/Steven Covey
    • Charlie Chaplin
    • Noam Chomsky
    • Deepak Chopra >
      • Ask Deepak
      • Deepak Chopra
    • Winston Churchill
    • Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
    • Ram Dass
    • Simone De Beauvoir
    • Anthony De Mello
    • Daniel Dennett
    • Shanti Devi
    • Junot Diaz
    • WALT DISNEY QUOTES
    • Fyodor Dostoyevsky >
      • Fyodor Dostoyevsky/ The Brothers Karamazov
    • Carol Dweck/Mindsets
    • Bob Dylan >
      • Bob Dylan
    • Thomas Edison Quiz
    • Albert Einstein >
      • Albert Einstein
    • T. S. Eliot
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson
    • Jane Eyre
    • Anneliese Marie Frank
    • William Faulkner
    • F Scott Fitsgerald >
      • The Roaring 20's
      • F Scott Fitzgerald 2014-15
      • The Great Gatsby
    • Benjamin Franklin
    • Robert Frost
    • Stephen Fry >
      • Stephen Fry
    • Neil Gaiman
    • Dan Gilbert
    • Malcom Gladwell
    • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
    • Gurdjieff
    • Steven Hawking /black Holes
    • Hafez/Hafiz #1 >
      • Hafez/Hafiz Poems #2
      • Hafez/Hafiz #3
      • Hafez/Hafiz #4
      • Hafez #5 >
        • Hafiz Poems #7
      • Hafez Poems #6
      • Hafez Poems #8
    • Thich Nhat Hanh
    • Tyrone Hayes
    • Ernest Hemingway
    • Hermann Hesse >
      • Siddhartha Quotes
    • Christopher Hitchens
    • HOU HSIAO-HSIEN
    • Langston Hughes >
      • Langston Hughes/ Poems
      • Langston Hughes
    • Aldous Huxley >
      • Brave New World 4/15 >
        • Secret Societies >
          • The Knights Templar
          • The Freemasons
          • The Rosicrucians
          • The Illuminati
          • The Carbonari
        • BNW/ Chemtrails vs Contrails
        • BNW/ Unit Plan
        • BNW/ 2015
        • BNW/ TED
        • BNW/ William Blake/Doors of Perception
        • BNW/ Details #1
        • BNW/ Details #2
        • BNW/ Soma= DMT?
        • BNW/ Futuristic Movie Trailers
        • BNW/ Dystopia vs Utopia
        • BNW vs 1984
        • BNW/ Orwell vs Huxley
        • BNW/ Noam Chomsky
        • BNW/ Huxley Complete Works
        • BNW/ Vedanta and Huxley
        • BNW/ Advaita Vedanta
        • BNW/ Bohemian Grove
        • BNW/ Corporate Deceit
        • BNW/ Shakespeare and Religion by Huxley
        • BNW/ Geo-Engineering
        • BNW/ About Aldous Huxley
        • BNW/ Doors
        • BNW/ Conspiracy?
        • BNW/1984 Synthetic Telepathy
        • BNW/ May 13th
        • BNW/ Transhumanism
        • BNW/ What is DMT? Soma?
        • BNW/ Psychological Warfare
        • BNW/ NWO
      • Brave New World 2014 >
        • Brave New World 2014 >
          • Brave New World #5 2014
          • Oligarcy
          • Transhumanism
          • Agenda 21
          • Inequality For All
          • Inequality For All
          • Brainwash Update
          • Globalization
        • Brave New World Quotes
        • Brave New World >
          • Brave New World #2
          • Brave New World #3
          • Brave New World #4
          • enotes/Brave New World
          • Brave New World Vocabulary Words
          • Aldous Huxley
          • Bio-Engineering
          • CHEM-TRAILS
          • Genetic Engineering
          • Aldous Huxley
          • Aldous Huxley - Videos
      • Brave New World 1/2015
    • Pir Zia Inayat-Khan/Sufi
    • Phil Jackson
    • Eta James
    • James Joyce
    • Mahatma Ghandhi
    • John Irving
    • Carl Gustav Jung/Interview >
      • C. G. Jung/Quotes
    • Jon Kabat-Zinn
    • Kabir
    • Franz Kafka >
      • Franz Kafka
    • Immanuel Kant
    • Byron Katie
    • Nikos Kazantzakis
    • John Keats
    • John F. Kennedy
    • Kibir
    • Stephen King
    • Alfie kohn
    • Matt Kohn >
      • Pleiadian Broadcast ???
    • Jeff Koons
    • Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • Rama Krishna
    • Stanley Kubrick >
      • Stanley Kubrick
    • Llewellyn Vaughan Lee
    • Best of David Letterman
    • C S Lewis
    • Jack London
    • David Lynch
    • Anandamayi Ma
    • Ramana Maharshi
    • Nelson Mandela
    • Og Mandino/Greatest Salesman >
      • Og Mandino/Summary
    • Karl Marx >
      • Karl Marx
    • John Mayer
    • Bert McCoy Quotes
    • Connor McGregor
    • Herman Melville
    • Lionel Messi
    • Dan Millman >
      • Peaceful Warrior
    • Hsin Hsin Ming The Book of Nothing
    • Mooji #1 >
      • Mooji/Avadhuta Gita #2
      • Mooji / Video & Sayings #3
      • Mooji #4
      • Mooji #5
    • Bill Moyer
    • Henry Miller
    • Thelonious Monk
    • Van Morrison
    • Elon Musk >
      • Elon Musk
    • Caroline Myss
    • Nietzsche >
      • Nietzsche
    • Anais Nin
    • Nissargadatta >
      • Nissargadatta I Am That
      • Nisargadatta Maharaj
    • John Oliver
    • John O'Donohue
    • Suze Orman
    • George Orwell >
      • 1984
      • 1984 >
        • george orwell biography
        • 1984 #1
    • Osho
    • Papaji
    • Pablo Picasso
    • Plato
    • Edgar Allen Poe
    • William Sydney Porter
    • Premananda
    • Marcel Proust
    • Anthony Robbins >
      • Tony Robbins
    • Robert Reich
    • Sen no Rikyu/Zen
    • Jim Rohn
    • Teddy Roosevelt quotes >
      • Victorian Period (1833-1901) >
        • Victorian Era
        • Robert Browning
        • Charles Dickens
        • Edgar Allen Poe
        • Alfred Lord Tennyson
    • Don Miguel Ruiz/The 4 Agreements
    • Rumi >
      • Rumi/Dr. Omid Safi
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #1
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #2
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #3
      • Rumi/Coleman Barks #4
    • Bertrand Russell
    • Sadhguru #1 >
      • Sadhguru #2
      • Sounds of Isha #3
      • Sounds of Isha
      • Isha
    • Stefan Sagmeister
    • Joel Salatin
    • Samarpan
    • Michael Sandel
    • Dr. Seus
    • Shakespeare
    • Anoushka Shankar
    • Percy Bysshe Shelley >
      • Mary Shelly
    • Nickolas Sparks
    • Bruce Springsteen
    • Ralph Steadman
    • David Steindl-Rast
    • Robert Louis Stevenson >
      • Rober Louis Stevenson 2
      • Robert Louis Stevenson 3 >
        • Robert Louis Stevenson Poems
        • Jekyll/2007
        • Dr> Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Audio $$ >
          • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Videos)
          • Key Facts
        • Treasure Island/RLS
    • Teal Swan
    • Rabindrath Tagore
    • Henry David Thoreau
    • Nikola Tesla
    • Eckhart Tolle
    • Leo Tolstoy
    • Brian Tracy
    • Mark Twain
    • Irina Tweedie
    • Lao Tzu/Tao/The Way
    • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Swami Vivekananda
    • Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
    • Kurt Vonnegut
    • David Foster Wallace >
      • David Foster Wallace
    • Neale Donald Walsch
    • George Washington
    • Holocaust/Night/Elie Weisel >
      • Night/Elie Weisel #2 >
        • Elie Weisel Pictures
    • Orson Welles
    • Oscar Wilde
    • Walt Whitman
    • Marianne Williamson >
      • Marianne Williamson
      • Marianne Williamson
    • Ed Witten
    • John Wooden
    • William Wordsworth
    • W B Yeats
    • Zig Ziglar
    • Zizek
  • English 9
    • Week 1-4/ Uncovering the Self >
      • Uncovering the Self
    • Grade 9/Unit 1/ Writing Task
    • Grade 9/Unit 2
    • Grade 9/Unit 3
    • English 9/Unit 4
    • English 9 TEDs
    • English 3D
    • English 3D
    • Read 180/Intensive 2
  • TED
    • TED Talks >
      • Videos #34 >
        • Videos #35
        • Videos #36
        • Videos #37
        • Videos #38
      • ted talks
      • TED #2
      • TED #3
      • TED X
      • TedxWomen
    • Ted Ed >
      • TED.Ed #1
      • Ted Ed #2
      • Ted Ed #3
      • Ted Ed #4
      • Ted Ed #5
      • Ted Ed #6
      • TED Ed #8
  • Poetry
    • Haiku >
      • Haiku
    • Quotes on Poetry >
      • Poets on Poetry
    • TED Poetry >
      • Rives Poetry >
        • Beats
    • Poetry Images
    • Button Poetry
    • Our Life In Poetry
    • Poetry "Random"
    • Fredrico Lorca
  • Music
    • John lennon
    • Rolling Stones
    • Light in Babylon
    • Resham Firiri/ Nepal
    • Guitar
    • Estas Tonne
    • Andres Segovia/ Guitar
    • Anna RF
    • Gipsy Kings
    • Hindi Songs
    • Music #2
    • JAZZ/ Louis Armstrong
    • Blues
    • The Beatles
    • om
    • Jack Johnson
    • Jazz
    • NPR Music
    • Krishna Das
  • Philosophy
    • Economics >
      • Economic Philosophy
    • Existentialism Quotes >
      • Hegel
    • The School of Life
  • Untitled
  • Letters of Note Website
  • Awakening
  • Mantras
  • Google
  • Last Minute Substitute Ideas
  • linguistics
  • Short Stories
    • The Emperor's Three Questions
    • Short Stories
    • Sonata for Harp and Bicycle by Joan Aiken
    • Carry Your Own Skis by Lian Dolan >
      • Snowboard Playlist/mix
    • The Gift of the Magi/O. Henry
    • The Necklace/Maupassant
    • The Most Dangerous Game/Connell
  • Novels
    • Catcher in the Rye
    • I know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    • Lord of the Flies
    • Of Mice and Men
    • A Single Shard
    • Stargirl/ >
      • Jerry Spinelli
      • Stargirl/ Characters
  • Comedy
  • Google Project Street Art
  • HAARP
  • People Are Awesome
  • Health Care
  • Fracking
  • Girls in Sports/Gender Equality
  • Untitled
  • Music/Sufi
    • History of the Blues
    • Sufi Music
  • Literature Analysis
  • Avadhuta Gita .pdf
  • Rumi/Deepak Chopra
  • Present Moment/The Now/The Zone
  • English Language Explained/Maps
  • How to trademark a phrase!
  • Narration and Literature
  • Mahatria
  • Teaching Stories
  • Harlem Renaissance Music/and some Sara Vaughan
    • Harlem Renaissance Doc
  • Oasis of the Seas
  • Ap History Exam Prep
  • Advertising Techniques
  • Academic Literary Terms
  • Untitled
    • Untitled
  • Happiness 1
    • Happiness 2
    • How to get Happy!
    • Philosophy, A guide to Happiness
    • Toxic People
    • A Guide to Happiness (Philosophy)
    • The Power of Time Off
  • Pierre Bezuhov/From War and Peace
  • Writing
    • 25 Phrases That Are Said Wrong
    • Writing Advice/ Roberto Bolano >
      • George Orwell/ Why I Write
    • Grammar >
      • Pronouns Overused
      • Nouns
      • Punctuation
    • Writing/Journaling >
      • Journaling/Goalsetting >
        • Journaling
        • 180 Journaling Prompts
        • 100 Benefits of Journaling
        • Colgate's Living Writers
      • Cool Stuff to Journal About >
        • Big Think >
          • Big Thinks
        • Sanskrit Terms
        • Spirit Animals/Totems >
          • Power Animals
        • Hip-Hop
        • Met-Publications
        • Google "Art Project"
        • Old Guys Telling Jokes
        • Vimeo
        • UFO >
          • DARPA
          • Area 51
        • Videos 1-10 >
          • Videos #1
          • Videos #2
          • Videos #3
          • Videos #4
          • Videos #5
          • Videos #6
          • Videos #7
          • Videos #8
          • Videos #9
          • Videos #10 >
            • Videos 11-20 >
              • Videos #11
              • Videos #12
              • Videos #14
              • Videos #15
              • Videos #16
              • Videos #17
              • Videos #18
              • Videos #19
              • Videos #20
            • Videos #21-30 >
              • Videos #21
              • Videos #22
              • Videos #23
              • Videos #24
              • Videos #25
              • Videos #26
              • Videos #27
              • Videos #28
              • Videos #29
              • Videos #30
              • Videos 31-40 >
                • Videos #31
                • Videos #32
                • Videos #33
      • MIT Writing/Reading Class Syllabus
      • The Art of War
    • Writing
    • Literacy
    • Arguementative Essay Writing
    • Writing Tips
    • Some writers on writing >
      • Ayn Rand
    • Best Essays Ever!
    • How To Write
    • Writing Advice
    • "Quick Writes"
    • Expository Writing
    • CAHSEE Essay
    • Collection of "How to write" videos
    • Common Errors in Writing
    • Grammar #1 >
      • Grammar
      • Adverbial Clause
    • Composition Forum
    • Symbolism
    • Final Essay Resources
  • Environmental/Health Designs/Concerns
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Sugar/Poison
    • Digital Citizenship Cyberbullying 6/15 >
      • Risky Relationships On-line
      • Digital Footprint
    • Environment >
      • Water
      • Plastic Water Bottles 1
      • Plastic Water Bottles 2
      • Fluoridation
      • Fluoride
      • Cell Phones Cause Cancer
      • Oil/Tar Sands
      • Treehugger.com
      • hand sanitizer
      • Skin Lotions
    • RSA Videos
    • crashcourse! >
      • crashcourse 2!
    • Environmental
    • Design in a Nutshell >
      • Design
      • Designers
      • Open-University Bike Design
    • Beauty Industry Modeling
    • Minute Physics >
      • Minute Physics 2
    • How it's Made
    • Make:
    • Etsy Art and Culture
    • PBS Off/Soft Book
    • Iron-on Transfers
  • Cool Stuff to Write About!
    • Writers on Writing
    • Writer's Block...HaHa
    • Soccer >
      • Soccer
    • Amazing
    • Medicine/Doc Mike Evans
    • Mysteries & Scandals
    • Sex Education >
      • Teen Pregnancy
    • Tax The Rich?
    • The Creators Project >
      • The Creators Project
    • Harvard Thinks Big
    • Coffee
    • Art Misc >
      • MTV unplugged
    • Pulp Magazine Project
    • Thinker
    • Gun Control
    • Suicide
    • Citizen Hearing on Disclosure 2013
    • Witness Testimony
    • Ufo
    • Archaeology
    • The Truth About...
    • Helping Others
    • New Yorker Cartoons
    • Prostetics
    • Astronaut
    • Creators Project
    • Wearable Project
    • Minecraft
    • Archives/Various
    • Upworthy
    • Reincarnation
    • Undocumented
  • Character/ How to build it!
    • Red Frost/ Motivation
    • Confidence
    • Responsibility
    • Decision Making
  • Untitled
  • bio.com
  • The Science of Happiness
  • Gnostic Society Library
  • Sign Language Hip Hop
  • Summer Reading 2015
    • Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick
  • Summer School 2015
    • Is Google making us stupid?
    • Does Technology Make Us Smarter?
  • News Reporting/Reading Same Script
  • English 12a
    • Unit 1 Week (1 & 2) "Summer Reading Assignment: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand" >
      • Unbroken Characters
      • Unbroken/ Prezi
    • Unit 3 Week (6-10) "Value of Life"
    • Unit 4 Week (9-12) "Racial Profiling"
  • Understanding Stress
  • Untitled
  • Drums and Drummers
  • Boy Scouts
    • Boy Scout Merit Badge Info
    • Climbing Knots/Boy Scouts
  • Unbroken
    • Unbroken Vocabulary
    • Unbroken Characters
    • Unbroken Discussion Questions
    • louie Zamperini and the 1936 Olympics
    • Louie Zamperini goes to War
    • Hiroshima
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - ZAMP and HIS SUPER MAN B-24
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - B-24s IN COMBAT
    • How Accurate is the movie Unbroken?
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - SUPER MAN ATTACKS - FUNAFUTI and NAURU
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - A GREEN HORNET and GREY SHARKS
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - PRISON CAMPS - OFUNA and OMORI
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - NAOETSU and CAMP B-4
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - THE BIRD - THEN AND LATER
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - WHEN LOUIE MET BILLY
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - FORGIVENESS
    • Unbroken vs History
    • USA/Japan POWs
    • Norden Bombsight
    • B-24 Bomber
    • Can We Drink Salt Water?
    • Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Story - KWAJALEIN - EXECUTION ISLAND
  • Romeo & Juliet/ Classical Music/Deep Purple, Etc,..
  • How to be Happy!
  • Thoughts
  • J.K. Rowlings
  • James Patterson/ Writing
  • Business Planning
  • Personal Statement
    • www.essayhell.com
    • Show not Tell in Writing
    • Map Out The College App Essay
  • The Value of Life
    • John Paul Sartre/ bad faith
    • Addicted to Suffering/ Red Ribbon 2015
    • Actuarial Table
    • Value of Life Quotes
    • Ric Elias
    • Matt Whoolery/ How to be Unhappy
    • Jill Bolte Taylor
    • What Makes a Life Worth Living?
    • "What is a Life Worth?" AmandaRipley
  • Top Business Movie Speeches
  • Overcoming Hopelessness
  • Upcoming Movies to Watch!!
  • Finding Your Life Purpose
  • 20 Free Tools for Entrepreneurs
  • www.recitethis.com
  • Best Websitesfor Teaching 201 5
  • Best Websites for Teaching 2014
  • Best Websites for Teaching 2013
  • Test of Three
  • What I Wish I Knew In High School
  • Best Practices
  • Value of Life 11/15
  • 8 Iconic Movie Rules To Live By
  • Kathryn Schulz/ On Being Wrong
  • Dealing With Anger
  • Learning The Stock Market
  • What To Do in Your Life
  • TED Talks
  • Poetry of Perception/ Harvard
  • New Page
  • funniest jokes
  • Opinion Paper Basics
  • Found Poems for, Into The Wild
  • willpower
  • schoolofthought.org
  • Marc & Angel
  • Restorative Justice
  • Coloring Books
  • Verbal Workout/Vocab from books
  • http://www.ethosconsultancynz.com/
  • Pindex
  • Understanding Assignments
  • Commencement Speeches
  • Writing Prompts
  • Personal Statement
  • English 12 Writing Prompts
  • Block Letter Format
  • PIQ
  • El Toro High School Class of 1979
  • SNL
  • Blackout Poems
  • Nerdwriter1
  • Internet Movie Script Database
  • Unit 5
  • Product Placement in Films
  • Tablets of Destiny
  • Public Service Videos
  • Instramental Beats For Poetry
  • Sexual Innuendos
  • Animal Totems
  • English 9 Ted Talks
  • Animal Farm
  • John F. Kennedy 3
  • How to be Happy?
  • The Boiling Frog Story
  • Lord Of The Flies
  • 2017 Summer Reading
  • Fashion History
  • Ayahuasca
  • Russian Dystopian Novel "We" George Orwell/Aldous Huxley
  • Smart Websites
    • 99U.com
  • Before I Fall
  • Quotes on Manners
  • Eng 12/ Good Food Bad Food
  • Summer Reading 2017
  • New Page
  • Live and Learn by Louise Menand
  • How to write an essay?
    • Vanderbilt Writing Resources
  • Ishmael Nazario
  • False Flags False attacks
  • Millikan Soccer Team
    • Possession Soccer
  • White Sounds for feeling Good
  • Food Unit English 12b
  • 1984 (New 2018)
    • 1984 Vocabulary Words
  • Are we living in the Matrix?
  • Stand-up Poetry
  • Sativacation
  • McCoy Family History
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • Concept Attainment
  • Get Rid of PTSD with a Stellate Ganglion Block
  • English 9 2018-19
  • 9/11
  • Chef Jeremiah Tower
  • Correy Goode
  • How to get out of jury duty
  • Rupi Kaur Poet
  • Greek Stuff to journal about
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Should You Use "I"?
  • The Odyssey Explained
  • Field of Dreams
  • Advice to your younger self
  • The Boiling Frog Story
  • GATE Students
  • 30 Things You Can Do To Promote Creativity
  • GATE Students in the Visual arts
  • Meditation
  • Boy Scout Eagle Project Information
  • Hunter S Thompson
  • Character Development
  • How to spot a liar
  • The History of Drunk
  • How to Draw Like an architect
  • Cool Interviews
  • Ouija Board Origins
    • Ouija Board Origins
  • Free Writing Courses
  • The Vatican
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
  • Artist Videos
  • Art
  • Ai Weiwei
  • Jannis Kounelles
  • Jose Luis Malo

Albert Einstein

Picture
In 1931, Albert Einstein wrote to Mohandas K. Gandhi to express his great admiration for the Indian leader’s methods. Translated from German, the letter reads in part:

You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence.

The letter long precedes the first atomic bombs and Einstein’s letters to F.D.R. warning of their development and use; though often discussed only in relation to the horrific events of World War II, the physicist’s opposition to violence and war was a longstanding passion for him. Einstein called his pacifism an “instinctive feeling” based only on his “deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred,” rather than any “intellectual theory.” His politics often paralleled those of fellow intellectual giant and anti-war activist Bertrand Russell (the two collaborated on a 1955 “Manifesto” for peace).
Gandhi remained an important influence on Einstein’s life and thought. In the audio clip above from 1950, he again offers generous praise for the man known as “Mahatma” (great soul). In the recording, Einstein says of Gandhi:

I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.

Gandhi’s concept of satyagraha, which roughly translates as “devotion to the truth,” appealed to Einstein, perhaps, because of its principled stand against political expediency and for a kind of moral commitment that depended on self-scrutiny and inquiry into cause and effect. Like the counter-intuitive theories of Einstein and Russell, Gandhi biographer Mark Shepard writes that the concept of satyagraha is “a hard one to grasp”–Especially, “for those used to seeing power in the barrel of a gun.”

Albert Einstein endeavored to express his view of God as forthrightly as possible to a public eager to know where he stood in the popular conflict between science and religion. In 1936, a sixth-grade girl named Phyllis wrote him a letter on behalf of her Sunday School class. “We have brought up the question,” she wrote, “Do scientists pray? It began by asking whether we could believe in both science and religion.” Einstein’s reply is somewhat equivocal. He is clear enough in stating that a scientific fidelity to the “laws of nature” means that “a scientist cannot be inclined to believe that the course of events can be influenced by prayer, that is, by a supernaturally manifested wish.” This would seem to settle the question. However, he goes on to invoke the philosopher Spinoza’s god and distinguish between intellectual humility and wonder, on the one hand, and a more popular, supernatural faith on the other.

However, we must concede that our actual knowledge of these forces is imperfect, so that in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith. Such belief remains widespread even with the current achievements in science.

But also, everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is surely quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive.

This is probably not the response that Phyllis and her class had hoped for, and they (or their teacher) may have taken offense at the description of their faith as “naïve.” But Einstein’s careful reply also expresses a kind of scientific awe that acknowledges the limits of reason and leads to a kind of sublime feeling that can legitimately be called “religious” (much as Carl Sagan would do decades later). This, I believe, is not a casual or callous dismissal of Phyllis’s faith, something that so-called “New Atheists” are often accused of (justly or not). Instead it’s a considered response in which the great physicist shares his own version of “faith”–his faith in Nature, or the “laws of the universe,” which he concedes are “vastly superior to man.” I think it’s a moving exchange between two people who couldn’t be further apart in their understanding of the world, but who just may have found some small common ground in considering each other’s positions for a moment.

  1. Bert McCoy says . . . | January 18, 2015 / 11:30 am Einstein said in this letter, “in the end the belief in the existence of a final, ultimate spirit rests on a kind of faith.” The faith word comes from the religions-faith in what so and so said. Thus, this faith in a ultimate spirit relies upon the past or on a certain prescribed future from someone of the past- more accurately, someone from the graveyard.
    As I see It, the “Final Ultimate Spirit” makes Its Self known in the hear and now…from what can be seen, tasted, smelled, heard, and touch. Therefore, One doesn’t need any kind of faith to realize What is ever present before him or her.

Albert Einstein passionately wooed his first wife Mileva Maric, against his family’s wishes, and the two had a turbulent but intellectually rich relationship that they recorded for posterity in their letters. Einstein and Maric’s love letters have inspired the short film above, My Little Witch (in Serbian, I believe, with English subtitles) and several critical re-evaluations of Einstein’s life and Maric’s influence on his early thought. Some historians have even suggested that Maric—who was also trained in physics—made contributions to Einstein’s early work, a claim hotly disputed and, it seems, poorly substantiated.

The letters—written between 1897 and 1903 and only discovered in 1987—reveal a wealth of previously unknown detail about Maric and the marriage. While the controversy over Maric’s influence on Einstein’s theories raged among academics and viewers of PBS’s controversial documentary, Einstein’s Wife, a scandalous personal item in the letters got much better press. As Einstein and Mileva’s relationship deteriorated, and they attempted to scotch tape it together for the sake of their children, the avuncular pacifist wrote a chilling list of “conditions,” in outline form, that his wife must accept upon his return. Lists of Note transcribes them from Walter Isaacson’s biography Einstein: His Life and Universe:

CONDITIONS

A. You will make sure:

1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.

B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, You will forego:

1. my sitting at home with you;
2. my going out or travelling with you.

C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:

1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
2. you will stop talking to me if I request it;
3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.

D. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.

While it may be unfair to judge anyone’s total character by its most glaring defects, there’s no way to read this without shuddering. Although Einstein tried to preserve the marriage, once they separated for good, he did not lament Mileva’s loss for long. Manjit Kumar tells us in Quantum: Einstein Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality that although “Mileva agreed to his demands and Einstein returned”

[I]t could not last. At the end of July, after just three months in Berlin, Mileva and the boys went back to Zurich. As he stood on the platform waving goodbye, Einstein wept, if not for Mileva and the memories of what had been, then for his two departing sons. But within a matter of weeks he was happily enjoying living alone “in my large apartment in undiminished tranquility.”

Einstein prized his solitude greatly. Another remark shows his difficulty with personal relationships. While he eventually fell in love with his cousin Elsa and finally divorced Mavic to marry her in 1919, that marriage too was troubled. Elsa died in 1936 soon after the couple moved to the U.S. Not long after her death, Einstein would write, “I have gotten used extremely well to life here. I live like a bear in my den…. This bearishness has been further enhanced by the death of my woman comrade, who was better with other people than I am.”

Einstein’s personal failings might pass by without much comment if had not, like his hero Gandhi, been elevated to the status of a “secular saint.” Yet, it is also the personal inconsistencies, the weaknesses and petty, even incredibly callous moments, that make so many famous figures’ lives compelling, if also confusing. As Einstein scholar John Stachel says, “Too much of an idol was made of Einstein. He’s not an idol—he’s a human, and that’s much more interesting.”

Proudly powered by Weebly