This is a misquote. Albert Einstein actually wrote:
People like us, who believe in physics, know the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, albeit a stubborn one.
Someone probably rewrote it in a philosophical way.
This is a pretty philosophical quote, and i doubt the father of the theory of relativity, and Nobel prize of physics winner would have meant it the way it was misquoted. I will not go into the philosophical part or it, i will not go into the “simulation” theory, and for sure i will not go into the quantum theory (reality doesn’t exist until observed).
Instead i am choosing to interpret this quote from a social, an entrepreneurship and business point of view. However i doubt that Mr. Einstein had this in mind.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one
– attributed to Albert Einstein
Reality is merely an illusion : This can be interpreted as: Your reality is an illusion: whether this reality is positive or negative.
– You might be living in poverty and misery, and that’s your reality.
– You might be living in happiness and are wealthy, and that’s you reality.
In both situations, they are realities simply because the person accepts them. Thus the reality is an illusion in the sense that it all depends on you decision.
You live in misery and poverty, you can move to another place, work on your internal happiness, not easy, but possible.
You live in wealth and happiness, you can lose all or simply get stuck in a show off/ competition sphere. You can be actually 2 months away from bankruptcy or simply in deep debt, but you do not let this affect your reality.
Our reality is also based on a lot of broken social structures that function only on paper or that are not really optimal.
Work is slavery, people work for long hours to be able to pay the bills.
The education system, create workers instead of entrepreneurs.
Money, coupled with inflation, keep the workers poor. Money is a made believe system.
Democracy is not real.
Success is also an illusion if you do not take advantage of it.
It is possible to change the reality, but it is difficult. Thus this illusion will persist …