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Friday, March 28, 2014

Life Under a Very Small Star


One day in 1922, instead of the promised lecture, Albert Einstein treated Geneva University students to a spirited violin recital.
The scientific sage was visiting from Germany, the country where he was still living despite a rising tide of violence, fascism and anti-Semitism. That evening at dinner, the wife of an Oxford professor asked Einstein how he could remain cheerful with so much depravity in the world.
He replied, “We must remember that this is a very small star, and probably some of the larger and more important stars may be very virtuous and happy.”
Intellectual and emotional detachment has its advantages.
Source: “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson

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