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Our world faces a crisis as yet unperceived by those possessing power to make great decisions for good or evil. The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
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From the article "Atomic Education Urged by Einstein", The New York Times (25 May 1946). The article reported on a telegram sent out by Einstein to "several hundred prominent Americans", asking for contributions to a nationwide campaign by the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists to "to let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential" in the age of atomic weapons.
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According to "A Brief History of the Bulletin from the former homepage of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 'In May 1946, Einstein, one of the Bulletin's godfathers, wrote in an early Bulletin fund-raising letter: "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."'
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Variant: "Our world is faced with a crisis which has never before been envisaged in its whole existence; it gives the power to make far-reaching decisions on good and evil. The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking, and thus we are being driven unarmed towards a catastrophe. ... the solution of this problem lies in the heart of humankind."
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This version appears in Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography by Carl Seelig, the English translation by Mervyn Savill (1956), p. 223. It may be that the difference in wording here owes to the fact that Seelig translated Einstein's English telegram into German, and then Mervyn Savill translated it back into English without realizing the version in Seelig's book was itself a translation from English. If this is the case, it is unclear where the phrase "the solution of this problem lies in the heart of humankind" came from, as it does not seem to correspond to anything in the original telegram. It may be a variant of some comment that appeared in his later interview with Michael Amrine (which was printed in the New York Times Magazine on 23 June 1946, and is also reproduced on this page) where he expanded on the message of the telegraph; for example, it may be a retranslated version of his comment "Science has brought forth this danger, but the real problem is in the minds and hearts of men."

 

Albert Einstein

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