You could find him "wheeling a baby carriage on the streets of Bern, Switzerland, halting now and then, unmindful of the traffic around him, to scribble down some mathematical symbols in a notebook that shared the carriage with his infant son, also named Albert,"the New York Times wrote in its obituary of the great scientist.
"Out of those symbols came the most explosive ideas in the age-old strivings of man to fathom the mystery of his universe," the Times added.
In his lifetime, Einstein would change the world, describing the workings of reality better than anyone since Isaac Newton and revealing the capabilities of the atom bomb.
In time, Einstein's name has become a byword for genius.
Here's the genius, in his own words.
On authority
"Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge dimension."
["The Curious History of Relativity"]
On scope
"The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working."
On politics
"I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever."
["The Yale Book of Quotations"]
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