Professor Albert Einstein once said, “I don’t know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” While some hailed Einstein’s remark as “words of wisdom”, many others called it a great “prediction”.
Albert Einstein said this in 1949 during an interview with journalist Alfred Werner for Liberal Judaism, a Jewish magazine published in the United States.
This remark appeared in an article entitled: “The real problem is in the hearts of men” (1949). By the late 1940s, however, similar versions were widely circulated, attributed to other figures as well, the report claimed.
In this interview, Einstein discussed the dangers of nuclear weapons and the destructive potential of future wars following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What he was suggesting in this famous quote, or actually “warning”, was the idea that nuclear war would collapse civilization back into primitive violence.
The message remains: modern warfare risks ending historical progress, the report argued.
Why does Albert Einstein’s quote matter now?
The world is on edge. Israel and Hamas are fighting in Gaza. Russia is at war with Ukraine. Pakistan and Afghanistan are blasting each other. And Israel-US versus Iran in the Middle East was the latest to add to those atrocities.
All of these conflicts, including those that are seemingly stable for now but are ready to flare up once disturbed (such as the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia), have led to insecurity.
US President Donald Trump has previously warned of World War III. It was 2024 when the Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel.
Many also believe that a nuclear weapon is likely to be used in war within the next five years. A Politico poll, as reported by The Week, revealed that at least one in three people in the US, UK, France and Canada believe a nuclear weapon is likely or very likely to be used in war in the next five years.
