"Einstein was a pacifist from his youth until 1933, when Hitler forced his hand on the issue. From 1933 to 1945, he saw some need for military action under certain circumstances..." - Alice Calaprice, editor: The Expanded Quotable EinsteinEinstein, prior to 1933:
"A human being who considers spiritual values as supreme must be a pacifist."
"No person has the right to call himself a Christian... so long as he is prepared to engage in systematic murder at the command of an authority, or allow himself to be used in any way in the service of war or the preparation for it."
“Force always attracts men of low morality.”
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
"That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him."
"We all know that when a war comes, every man accepts the duty to commit a crime -- the crime of murder -- each man for his own country. Those who realize the immorality of war should do their utmost to disentangle themselves from this old idea of military duty -- and so become liberated from slavery."
"My pacifism is an instinctive feeling, a feeling that possesses me because the murder of people is disgusting. My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory, but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred."
"I believe serious progress [in the abolition of war] can be achieved only when men become organized on an international scale and refuse, as a body, to enter military or war service."
"I appeal to all men and women, whether they be eminent or humble, to declare that they will refuse to give any further assistance to war or the preparation of war."
"That worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... this plague-spot of civilization, ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes on in the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them! How vile and despicable war seems to me! I would rather be hacked into pieces than take part in such abominable business."
"The minority, presently the ruling class, has the school and the press, and usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and use them as its tool."
Einstein, after 1933:
"I am the same ardent pacifist I was before. But I believe that the tool of refusing military service can be advocated again in Europe only when the military threat from aggressive dictatorships toward democratic countries has ceased to exist."
"It is my belief that the problem of bringing peace to the world... will be solved only by the employing of Gandhi's method on a larger scale."
"I can identify my views almost completely with those of Gandhi. But I would (individually and collectively) resist with violence any attempt to kill or to take away from my people or me the basic means of subsistence."
"I admire Gandhi greatly but I believe there are... weaknesses in his program. Nonresistance is the most intelligent way to face difficulty, but it can be practiced only under ideal conditions... It could not be carried out against the Nazi party today."
"I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened among all of 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 nonparticipation in what we believe is evil."
"Noncooperation in military matters should be an essential moral principle for all true scientists."
"The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack."
"As long as armies exist, any serious conflict will lead to war. A pacifism that does not actively fight against the armament of nations is and must remain impotent."
"I repeat, armament is no protection against war, but leads inevitably to war... Striving for peace and preparing for war are incompatible with each other... Arms must be entrusted only to an international authority."
"The goal of pacifism is possible only through a supranational organization."
"Do I fear the tyranny of a world government? Of course I do. But I fear still more the coming of another war or wars. Any government is certain to be evil to some extent. But a world government is preferable to the far greater evil of wars."
"The war is won, but the peace is not."
"To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder."
"I have always been a pacifist, i.e., I have declined to recognize brute force as a means for the solution of international conflicts. Nevertheless, it is, in my opinion, not reasonable to cling to that position unconditionally. An exception has necessarily to be made if a hostile power threatens wholesale destruction of one's own group."
"I am a dedicated but not an absolute pacifist; this means that I am opposed to the use of force under any circumstances except when confronted by an enemy who pursues the destruction of life as an end in itself."
"Organized power can be opposed only by organized power. Much as I regret this, there is no other way."
"Unless the force of peace, based on law, gathers behind it the force and zeal of religion, it can hardly hope to succeed... There must be added that deep power of emotion that is a basic ingredient of religion."
"I made one mistake in my life -- when I signed that letter to President Roosevelt advocating that the bomb should be built. But perhaps I can be forgiven for that because we all felt that there was a high probability that the Germans were working on this problem and they might succeed and use the atomic bomb to become the master race."
"Politics is more difficult than physics."
"There lies before us, if we choose, continued progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal, as human beings, to human beings: Remember your humanity and forget the rest."
(~ in his last statement, issued with Bertrand Russell, a week before his death)