I was cleaning out some old email accounts today and scanned through them for anything I thought I should really say and in one of them I found an “Einstein” quote one of my brothers had sent to me all the way back in 2007…
“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination. “
Albert Einstien
…and looking at first I noticed Einstein was spelled wrong but then also wondered why hadn’t I heard of this quote before? Where did it come from? It just really didn’t sound right to me. I thought Einstein said that?…
So I did what I always do, I Googled it. I googled it and found this excellent blog article by ben Shoemate entitled: Einstein never said that… « Ben Shoemate. While the whole article is a good read the last paragraph really was apropos for me…
Why does this bother me?
People use quotes as a way to strengthen their own position. If I can quote someone you respect, it adds credibility to whatever argument I’m making. Over time, the truth gets further and further away. The biggest names have always attracted people who are more than willing to put words into their mouths for their own gain – Confucious, Jesus, Aristotle, Shakespere, Einstein, and the biggest, most misquoted, of them all – God. All of them have probably been quoted more for the things they never said, than things they actually did say. I imagine this is the most disappointing part of time travel, waiting around to witness words never spoken and deeds never done.
Thanks Ben, I’ll be back for more too. ‘Got your feed in my Google Reader now too.