This is surely the strongest endorsement of education. Einstein nails what Emma Goldman said, "The most violent element in society is ignorance."

There is such straightforward simplicity to his writing that it is over-interpreted today. Chiefly, Einstein's writing is compassionate, often comparable to Erich Fromm. Here we take him as an "elitist" insulting "the masses", who are by our definition today "poor".

He often calls people idiots and is scathing about the uses to which we put technology;

  " I fear the day that technology will surpass our human
  interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots."

  "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a
  pathological criminal"

Albert Einstein would not survive for one moment in what we call "Academia" today. One of my students once remarked that he'd have been a Ted Kaczynski, only he built bigger bombs.

Yet my favourite, which I'd hope people of the 7th Millennium will read and nod at:

  "In any conflict between humanity and technology, humanity will win."