Did Albert Einstein say: “Only a fool needs order - a genius dominates chaos”?

The phrase attributed to the famous scientist, widely dispersed in the Russian -speaking segment of the Internet. We decided to check if he said something like that.

This statement indicating the authorship of Einstein can Meet On many sites with collections Quote And aphorisms. It is enough Popular For users social networks And Blogs, there are many pictures-memes With this phrase. Visitors to questions and answers Discuss The justice of the statement and InterestedDoes it really belong to the famous physics. Sometimes a quote about the order and chaos Take out V Title Biographical articles about the Nobel laureate. On sale can be found Souvenirs With the inscription “When they ask you to remove in the room, quote Einstein:“ Only the fool needs order, the genius dominates the chaos! ” IN biographies Albert Einstein of the authorship of the Russian writer Maxim Gureev is given just such a context of this phrase - the conversation of the future scientist with the mother. Quote attributed to Einstein in many books of Russian -speaking authors - as artistic, so Scientific and popular And even esoteric.

All the currently known written sources left by Albert Einstein are well studied, many of them are digitized. For example, the Jewish University in Jerusalem contains a large array of scientific works and letters of the famous physicist. A significant part of the archive is digitized - anyone can check the correctness of the quotes attributed to him Project website. Similar work is carried out Princeton And California technological Universities. We failed to find a similar quote at the resources created by these institutions about Einstein. There is no such phrase in the collection The Ultimate QUOTABLE EINSTEINwhich in 2011 from a distance in Princeton.

Sometimes to a quote about the relationship of geniuses and chaos Apply Photo of Einstein's desktop, littered with books and papers. This picture realIt was made on April 18, 1955, a few hours after the death of the scientist. However, we do not know anything about whether the state of the table was a reflection of Einstein's philosophical views by an order of magnitude and chaos or simply coincidence. Another popular on the Internet signature To this photo is a phrase, also allegedly said by the Nobel laureate in defense of the disorder: “If a cluttered table is a sign of a cluttered mind, then a sign of what is then an empty table?” However, to find confirmation that Einstein really spoke or wrote something like that was neither “verified” or our colleagues from Quote investigator.

Moreover, the statement that only a fool needs order is contrary to views Einstein himself. In an interview, he said: "My views are close to Spinoza's views: admiration for beauty and faith in the logical simplicity of order and harmony." Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, well acquainted with Einstein, said about him like this: “He had a quality that made him unique. It was his belief that in nature there is order and harmony and that the human mind can comprehend them. ”

In the English -language segment of the Internet, there are several significantly different versions of the quote checked. This indirectly indicates that, most likely, it was voluntarily translated from some other language, and did not appear in English initially. The most popular option Sounds So: “Order Is for IDIOTS. Genius Canley Chaos. " In the Google Books online library, this quote in English is found only in one book 2009 - and without indicating authorship. A little less common version - "Order is needed by the ignorant But it takes a genius to master Chaos." She is not found at Google Books at all.

We were not able to find the source of quotes about order and chaos, but Russian-speaking Internet users Published She under the guise of Einstein's statements at least in 2007. The options in English spread much later, judging by the results of the quote in Google, already in the late 2010s. However, we do not have enough grounds to argue that initially the quote was born precisely in the Russian -language segment of the Internet. 

Thus, there is not a single reliable evidence that the famous scientist has ever pronounced something similar. Albert Einstein is one of those people who often attribute various statements to give words more weight. Most likely, it happened with this quote.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

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