“I have found no better expression than 'religious' for confidence in the rational nature of reality as it is accessible to human reason.”
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Source: Letter to Maurice Solovine, 1 January 1951
About this quote
Einstein uses religious language for trust that reality is intelligible through reason, not for a conventional personal deity. The distinction helps readers understand how scientific confidence and spiritual vocabulary coexist in his thought.
When to use it
- A physicist describes awe at mathematical order without making a claim about supernatural intervention.
- A teacher distinguishes Einstein's use of “religious” from membership in a specific creed.
- A reader checks the letter's context before turning the phrase into a statement of orthodox belief.