Albert Einstein Last Words: 'I Want to Go When I Want'
Few phrases capture a life's philosophy as precisely as the Einstein last words: "I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."
On the night of April 13, 1955, Albert Einstein, then 76, suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He was taken to Princeton Hospital, where doctors urged surgery — a procedure that might have extended his life. Einstein refused, and his response to the physicians who pressed him has become one of the most famous final statements in the history of science.
The Refusal
"I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly."
Einstein died in the early hours of April 18, 1955, at Princeton Hospital. Born in Ulm, Germany, in 1879, he had transformed physics twice over — first with the special theory of relativity in 1905, then with the general theory in 1915, which redefined gravity and space-time. His equation E=mc² became the most famous formula in science. He had, by any measure, done his share.
Death With Dignity
"I have done my share, it is time to go."
Einstein's refusal was not despair but completion. He had already told friends that he had lived long enough and that his work was done. His calm acceptance places him in the company of scientists who faced death without flinching — Nikola Tesla, who retired to his room at the New Yorker Hotel in 1943 and asked simply not to be disturbed, and Stephen Hawking, who spoke openly about mortality decades after his diagnosis.
Today, the Einstein last words are remembered as a lesson in autonomy: the right to choose how one leaves. His serene exit stands in contrast to the wonder of Steve Jobs, who died in 2011 whispering "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." — and to the relentless devotion of Marie Curie, who worked in her laboratory until her final illness.
For the complete biography of the physicist who rewrote the laws of the universe, visit the Albert Einstein profile, then continue through the Scientists & Tech Section for more stories of remarkable exits.
An Elegant Exit
Einstein's last words show a man at peace with his own ending, confident that he had given everything he owed the world. His refusal to linger was, in the end, the final act of a physicist who believed in facing reality plainly. Read more about the parting words of science's greatest minds in the Archives.