Einstein Left Words of Wisdom on Tokyo Hotel Stationery

[tao]

Einstein’s long lost secrets to happiness have finally resurfaced after being hidden away for nearly 100 years. The secrets were scribbled on two notes given to a Tokyo courier in 1922, and offer insight into the inner workings of one of the greatest minds to ever live.

 

Ninety-five years ago famed physicist Albert Einstein wrote down (in German) two of his own personal theories on happiness. The first, written on hotel stationary read: "A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest." The second, written on plain white paper merely stated: “Where there's a will, there's a way," Express wrote.

 

According to the backstory, relayed by the seller, Einstein gave the messages to a courier who had delivered Einstein a message while he was staying at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1922. Einstein gave the courier these notes rather than a monetary tip, the Daily Mail reported. "Maybe if you're lucky those notes will become much more valuable than just a regular tip," Einstein supposedly told the courier.

 

The letters will go on sale later this month, and will be sold to the highest bidder.

 

Einstein’s premonition was accurate. Today, the notes are on auction in Jerusalem by the seller, who is a relative of the courier and wants to remain anonymous. They will go up for sale this Halloween, along with two other letters Einstein wrote in later years, according to IFL Science.

 

he notes are especially valuable considering the date they were written: 1922. This was shortly after Einstein had been awarded the Nobel Prize for physics and had just begun to become a household name. Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for “his services to Theoretical Physical, and especially for this discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” However, he did not physically receive his award until a year later in 1922.

 

The discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect proposed that light is both a wave and a particle, an understanding that soon became fundamental to quantum mechanics, and without it we would have no solar cells.

 

There’s no way of knowing what went through Einstein’s mind as he wrote these notes, or what spurred his musings on happiness. Roni Grosz, an archivist in charge of the world’s largest Einstein collection at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, told AFP the notes simply offer a "stone in the mosaic" of Einstein's portrait during a time when he had reached newfound fame. 

 

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[flash48]

So now the truth comes out.  Not only was Einstein a genus, he was also cheap!

[humble3d]

"A quiet and modest life brings more joy than

a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest."  

[tao]

Einstein note on modest living sells for $1.56 million

[luisam]

19 hours ago, flash48 said:

So now the truth comes out.  Not only was Einstein a genus, he was also cheap!

 

So, a hand-written note on hotel stationary is worth more than all the income received by Einstein during his whole, presumably quiet and modest life which, according to his words let him to pursue success bound with constant unrest.... Where there's a will, there's a way!

[flash48]

40 minutes ago, luisam said:

 

So, a hand-written note on hotel stationary is worth more than all the income received by Einstein during his whole, presumably quiet and modest life which, according to his words let him to pursue success bound with constant unrest.... Where there's a will, there's a way!

 

Yes this is true but,  the courier Einstein handed the note to did not enjoy the money,  his future family did.

[alvinblah]

I can only imagine this will encourage other semi-trivial tidbits from other famous lives to be put up for auction. I heard on the radio the anticipated value was placed around $5,000 and the auction house was surprised in how far it climbed in value.

[rasbridge]

Wonderful words of wisdom