When did Einstein say time is an illusion?
Isabella Bartlett
Updated on April 29, 2026
“To those of us who believe in physics,” he wrote in 1955 to the family of a friend who had recently died, “this separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, if a stubborn one.” When his own turn came, a few weeks later, Einstein said, “It is time to go.”
Why did Einstein say time is an illusion?
As For Einstein...As we saw from Einstein's quote, he believed that time is an illusion, that both the future and the past are unchangeable, and will play out exactly the way they were meant to.