Einstein’s other important theory: On how to be happy

He may be famous for being the father of the theory of general relativity – the basis for our understanding of the entire universe and its development – but Albert Einstein had another important theory.

One for how to live happily.

A note Einstein wrote outlining his ideas about happiness which he gave to a courier in Tokyo in 1922 during a lecture tour of Japan has just surfaced 95 years later.

It was written shortly after science’s most famous genius won the Nobel Prize for physics for his Theory of Relativity. Einstein mused that “a quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he added in the note given to a staff member of the Imperial Hotel who refused to accept a tip and was given Einstein’s handwritten thoughts instead.

https://twitter.com/HistoryInPix/status/922003865481949186

Now on sale in Jerusalem by one of the courier’s descendants, as if he could predict the future, Einstein wrote: “maybe if you’re lucky those notes will become much more valuable than just a regular tip.”

“What we’re doing here is painting the portrait of Einstein – the man, the scientist, his effect on the world – through his writings,” said Roni Grosz, archivist in charge of the world’s largest Einstein collection at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as quoted by the AFP.

The Edmond J. Safra Campus at Hebrew University is home to Einstein’s famous E=mc2 formula, scientific and personal correspondence, books from his library at Princeton University, and photographs.

“This is a stone in the mosaic,” Grosz said.

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