Skip to main content

Life & Wisdom Quote by Alfred Einstein

"It was inevitable that in doing this I should arrive at new results, and it is perhaps understandable that in the end I have felt impelled to present these results not only in the dry form of a catalogue, but also in a more connected and personal one"

About this Quote

There is a quiet flex in the word “inevitable”: a way of laundering ambition through modesty. Alfred Einstein frames discovery not as inspiration or ego, but as the natural byproduct of method. He didn’t chase “new results,” they emerged because the work was done properly. It’s a classic scholar’s move, especially in the early-to-mid 20th century world of letters: present your intervention as an obligation to the record, not a bid for status.

Then comes the real pivot: the “dry form of a catalogue” versus “a more connected and personal one.” He’s staking out a middle path between archival authority and narrative persuasion. Catalogues imply objectivity, completeness, a kind of institutional tone. By admitting their dryness, he signals awareness of how scholarship can become a mausoleum: accurate, impressive, unread. The “connected and personal” alternative is not a retreat from rigor; it’s an argument that interpretation is part of the evidence. Connection is meaning-making, and “personal” is a claim about voice: the researcher as a visible witness, not an invisible clerk.

The phrase “felt impelled” is doing cultural work too. It casts authorship as compulsion rather than choice, a defense against accusations of subjectivity. He anticipates the gatekeepers who distrust the first person, and answers them with a paradox: the most responsible way to report facts is sometimes to admit the human path that produced them. In that tension, you can see modern humanities taking shape - not abandoning the catalogue, but insisting it isn’t the whole truth.

Quote Details

TopicWriting
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Einstein, Alfred. (2026, January 15). It was inevitable that in doing this I should arrive at new results, and it is perhaps understandable that in the end I have felt impelled to present these results not only in the dry form of a catalogue, but also in a more connected and personal one. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-inevitable-that-in-doing-this-i-should-169244/

Chicago Style
Einstein, Alfred. "It was inevitable that in doing this I should arrive at new results, and it is perhaps understandable that in the end I have felt impelled to present these results not only in the dry form of a catalogue, but also in a more connected and personal one." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-inevitable-that-in-doing-this-i-should-169244/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It was inevitable that in doing this I should arrive at new results, and it is perhaps understandable that in the end I have felt impelled to present these results not only in the dry form of a catalogue, but also in a more connected and personal one." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-was-inevitable-that-in-doing-this-i-should-169244/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Alfred Add to List
Inevitable new results and a personal presentation of findings
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Germany Flag

Alfred Einstein (December 30, 1880 - February 13, 1952) was a Writer from Germany.

2 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes