'Astrology is a science in itself and contains an illuminating body of knowledge. It taught me many things and I am greatly indebted to it.'.

You may have noticed I have removed this quote from my blog.

After some research, and thanks to a reader informing me of this, I have found that this quote was not found in any of Einstein's biographies, and that the book 'Cosmic Religion with other opinions and aphorisms' from Covici-Friede, published in New York in 1931, did not contain this quote.

Although thousands of websites and astrology books have published this quote, no reliable record on this can be found.

Einstein was even concerned that his predecessor, Kepler, held such views about astrology.

This reader forwarded me with a piece of his research, written by Denis Hamel from the 'Skeptical Inquirer' in November-December 2007.

Here's an extract from the article:

‘[...] After some research on the Web and in various library indexes, I found that Hirsig had written a book in 1950 titled Astrologie moderne (Modern Astrology). Thanks to an interlibrary loan system, I obtained a copy of the book from Switzerland and realized that the Manuel d'astrologie of 1965 was a reprint of this book. Differences between the two documents are minor, as both books have the same table of contents and pagination. Only the prefaces are different. In the 1965 version, a foreword is added where the sentence attributed to Einstein is introduced for the first time in Hirsig's book. Indeed, I would have been surprised if Hirsig had introduced the quote in a book published while Einstein was still alive.

I contacted Hirsig's former wife, Ms. Huguette Hirsig, to ask her if she knew the source used by her ex-husband, particularly as she had used the same quote in one of her books on astrology, Previsions astrologiques mondiales (1993, p. 15). Unfortunately, she could not enlighten me and instead referred me to a former collaborator of her husband who, as it turned out, also did not know the origin of the quote.

Pursuing my research, I came across a vast compilation of all the unpublished manuscripts, notes, letters, etc. of Einstein, The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Alice Calaprice, the coeditor of this monumental work, read or perused all documents eventually reproduced in the collection, of which nine tomes of four hundred pages each have been released to date. Each book ends with an index--in which the word astrology is conspicuously absent. As a by-product of her work, in 1996 Calaprice published a book comprising quotes by Einstein on various topics (religion, science, politics, etc.). The book, The Quotable Einstein, has a section including sentences "attributed to Einstein." But still, no trace of the astrology quote.

I contacted Calaprice and, with her permission, here are some excerpts of her reply:

'I can't believe that Einstein believed in astrology, and I wasn't aware that he is being quoted on it until I received an e-mail from someone about it over a year ago, and now your letter.... Many quotations are attributed to Einstein to give them credence, and one shouldn't believe all of them.... But if he were a believer in astrology, I think it would have been apparent somewhere in his writings or letters, and I've never come across even a mention of the word.

Calaprice referred me to a book by Einstein as a possible source for the alleged quote, 'Cosmic Religion and Other Aphorisms'. I read that short book (twice) and of course, there was no trace of the quote. In fact, in Cosmic Religion Einstein is quoted as saying, "By furthering logical thought and a logical attitude, science can diminish the amount of superstition in the world" (Einstein 1931, p. 98).

I was able to tell Calaprice that the word astrology had most likely been used only on one occasion in print by Einstein, and then it was in order to excuse Kepler for having practiced astrology extensively throughout his life as a means to earn a more decent living. In 1951, Einstein wrote an introduction to Carola Baumgardt's 1951 book, Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters, with an Introduction by Albert Einstein. The last sentence of his introduction reads as follows:

The reader should note the remarks on astrology. They show that [for Kepler] the inner enemy, conquered and rendered innocuous, was not yet completely dead.

It was then obvious that the other quote so popular in astrological circles could not possibly have been written by Albert Einstein.

Shortly after its publication in 2000, I purchased The Expanded Quotable Einstein. It is with some satisfaction that I realized that Calaprice took into account my communication to her. She created (on page 272) an entry for astrology and reproduced the real opinion of Einstein on the subject, as the "inner enemy." She also put the false quote that astrologers are so fond of on pages 320-321, in the section '[Attributed to Einstein]' noting it as "an excellent example of a quotation someone made up and attributed to Einstein in order to lend an idea credibility. Yet several people have asked me to confirm it."

From June 2001 onwards, I endeavoured to contact more than one hundred Web masters I found posting the false quote on their sites either in English, French, or German. Many among them did not even reply to my messages. Others did with classic arguments against "official science" that cannot explain many esoteric phenomena, for example citing the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. A French astrologer even told me the following: "If this sentence is going around the world with Einstein's signature, it is the proof that he at least meant it." However, several people showed some open-mindedness, as with a Canadian astrologer posting on her Web site the following:

'It's time astrologers started being a little more intellectually honest and careful where it comes to arguments we offer in support of Astrology. I have removed two quotes from my quotation page because I have reasonable doubts that they are accurate. These two quotes, by Einstein and Newton, are among the most quoted remarks in support of astrology by recognized scientists but no-one can tell us where they come from. They don't seem to be in any of the historical records of these two scientists. I recently received a letter about them that goes into great detail on the subject'.

The Origin of the Hoax

A French astrologer removed the false quote from his Web page after having consulted with André Barbault, one of the most respected French astrologers. The latter recommended he not use it anymore. In July 2002, I contacted Barbault on the subject and provided him with the actual opinion of Einstein on astrology: the "inner enemy" of Kepler. Here are some excerpts of his reply: "Thank you for this convincing documentation on Einstein. I always advised people around me against quoting this sentence as it did not fit Einstein's character." Barbault kindly provided me with an old, yellowing clipping containing a French translation of the quote. The source provided in the document is the Huters astrologischer Kalender of 1960. By searching on the Web, I found that the Huters is a yearly astrological periodical.

Due to this new information, I had to revise my theory on the actual source of the hoax. I obtained a copy of the 1957 to 1960 editions of the Huters from a German bookshop. Indeed, the fake quote had appeared on page four of the 1960 edition (released at the end of 1959), but not in previous editions.

This new information proves that Hirsig could not have been the source of the original hoax. In his book of 1962, Votre destin par l'astrologie (Your Destiny through Astrology), Hirsig did quote the great French writer Honord de Balzac on the subject of astrology, using a phrase whose beginning is identical to the one attributed to Einstein: "Astrology is a huge science and which did reign over the greatest minds" (Balzac 2000).

It seems he would definitely have included Einstein's quote alongside Balzac's if he had been the author of the false quote, or even aware that the quote existed. As Barbault collaborated with Hirsig in the 1940s, (4) I contacted him to verify his opinion as to whether Hirsig could have been the author of the quote. He replied with the following: "It looks quite unlikely that Hirsig could have created such a forgery ... Hirsig was an honest and sober man. It is most likely that we should incriminate a crank astrologer--there are so many among them--Hirsig's responsibility having been to take seriously that person by publishing his/her text."

I asked a friend whose mother tongue is German to check the language of the Huters' quote to find out if it was proper German (and so likely to have been originally written in German) or a bad translation into German from a foreign language. She confirmed that the text was indeed in "good German." It is interesting to note that there is only one German version of the quote. However, two versions of the French translation exist, and the version mainly disseminated in esoteric literature is the one used by Hirsig.

Given the evidence I've shown above, it is obvious that the phrase so popular among astrologers is an invention, and one most likely put forward by Carl Heinrich Huter. From reading his yearly almanacs, it's quite clear that he did not work with collaborators. As I've noted above, Einstein had a negative opinion on astrology, which he characterized as an "inner enemy" of Kepler.

However, if one absolutely wishes to link Einstein with the world of esotericism and soothsayers, I recommend reading an article that Einstein published in 1926 on the "cause of meander formation" according to Baer's law. It provides a scientific explanation for the fact that rivers from the northern hemisphere tend to dig banks to their right sides, whereas rivers in the southern hemisphere erode their left sides. [...]

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Ms. Marie-Annick Moreau, who kindly revised the English translation of this paper.

References

Balzac, Honore de. 2000. Le Cousin Pons. Paris: Classiques Universels, L'Aventurine. First published in 1847.
Baumgardt, Carola. 1951. Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters, with an Introduction by Albert Einstein. New York: Philosophical Library.
Calaprice, Mice. 2000. The Expanded Quotable Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
--. 1996. The Quotable Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Einstein, Albert. 1931. Cosmic Religion with Other Opinions and Aphorisms. New York: Covici-Friede Publishers.
--. 1954. Ideas and Opinions. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
Frank, Philipp. 1967. Einstein, His Life and Times. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Hirsig, Huguette. 1993. Prévisions astrologiques mondiales. Montreal, Lausanne: Delachaux Niestle.
Hirsig, Werrler. 1950. Astrologie moderne. Montreux-Clarens: Montreal, Santoza.
--. [1943] 1983. Destin de l'homme. Boucherville: Les Editions de Mortagne.
--. 1965. Manuel d'astrologie. Quebec: Editions de l'Arc.
--.1962. Votre destin par l'astrologie. Montreal Editions de l'Homme.
Huter, Carl Heinrich. 1956, 1957, 1958 and 1959. Huters astrologischer Kalender of 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. Stuttgart: Heinrich Huter Verlag.
Stache], John. 1987. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.'

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