In late 2017, a small note written by Albert Einstein was auctioned at a Jerusalem auction house. On the note was a 13-word German sentence. Jerusalem houses all of Einstein’s documents: Before his death in 1955, Einstein donated all of his documents in his will to the Hebrew University, which he co-founded in the 1920s.

The story is this: the note was written in Japan, using special paper from the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and the date of writing was November 1922. At that time, Einstein had just won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Einstein's lectures were warmly welcomed by the Japanese people, and even outshone the Japanese royal family. One day, a Japanese courier sent news that he had won the Nobel Prize. In order to prevent the courier from returning empty-handed, Einstein gave the courier a note as a souvenir. The seller of the note revealed that Einstein told the unnamed courier: "If you are lucky, these notes will become priceless." According to the BBC, the seller of the note is the nephew of the Japanese courier. "

There is no doubt that Einstein's status as a scientific authority is an important reason why his famous sayings are frequently quoted. For example, he once said: "The most puzzling thing about the universe is its knowability. ”

However, people often quote him on many issues that have nothing to do with science, such as education, wisdom, politics (In 1952, Israel wanted him to serve as prime minister), religion, marriage, Money and music production, etc.

Facing the issue of education, he once said: “Education is what remains after forgetting everything learned in school. "

Facing the issue of wisdom, he once said: "The difference between genius and idiot is that genius has limits. ”

Faced with political issues, he once said: “Crazy is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” ”

In this regard, I have a guess: Did Einstein explicitly say or write these words? According to people’s comments on "Einstein Quotations Ultimate Edition", Wikiquotes and QuoteInvestigator.com The investigation of Einstein's famous quotes, coupled with my personal research as an Einstein biographer, I believe that the authenticity of many of Einstein's famous quotes is indeed doubtful.

In fact, we have no way of knowing. It is absolutely certain that any of the quotes mentioned above come from Einstein himself, with the exception of the well-known saying "God does not play dice", and even this quote is an abbreviated translation of Einstein's original words. In 1926, Einstein clearly expressed his views on quantum theory in a letter written in German to the physicist Max Born: "Quantum theory talks about many things, but it does not lead us further. The secret of getting closer to God. Regardless, I have no doubts that he doesn't roll the dice.

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