Albert Einstein sought beauty in his scientific theories. For Einstein, a theory should not only be useful but also elegant. A beautiful theory was one that could explain something complex in a simple and graceful way. (He said, “when the solution is simple, God is answering.”)
Einstein was convinced that beauty was a guiding principle in the search for important results in theoretical physics. As soon as an equation seemed to him to be ugly, Einstein lost interest in it. His colleague Hermann Bondi said Einstein couldn’t understand why somebody would spend any time on ugly equations. I think we could go one step further.
I think we could say that–consciously or not–beauty is how ALL of us find our most important answers. We seek beauty in our lives, even if we’re not consciously aware of that inner desire. We hunger for beauty as we do for food.
Beauty explains how the universe works. I believe it best explains how our lives work as well.
