Einstein reveals secret of a happy life

The year was 1922. German-born physicist Albert Einstein learned he was about to receive the Nobel Peace Prize while he was on a lecture tour in Japan. He was staying at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo when a Japanese courier delivered a message to his room. Apparently Einstein had no small change available to tip the courier, so he wrote him a note instead.

According to a relative of the courier, Einstein told him, "Maybe if you're lucky this note will become more valuable than just a regular tip." On Imperial Hotel stationary, Einstein wrote in German, "A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest." It is not possible to determine if the note was a reflection on Einstein's own musings on his growing fame," says Roni Grosz, the archivist in charge of the world's largest Einstein collection, at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.