If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

"On Intellectual Freedom", letter to the editor of The Reporter about the situation of scientists in America (13 / 18 October 1954, v11, no. 9; sometimes cited as 14 / 23 September 1954 instead; reprinted in Einstein On Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb, Rowe & Schulmann 2007; also attested to by Abraham J. Multer in his Congressional testimony 2 February 1955, quoting a 23 January 1955 speech in Ohio by The Reporter executive editor Harland Cleveland)