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The book "How to think like Einstein" (Isbn-13 978-1-4926-2627-5) has a number of quotes in it that are attributed to Albert Einstein

On page 28 of that book, it claims

"Einstein Thinking"

"I'm doing just fine, considering that I have triumphantly survived Nazism and two wives"

  • ALBERT EINSTEIN
user1605665
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  • On the whole, Einstein wasn't known for pithy remarks. The only ones that spring to mind are the one about god playing dice and the one about world war 4 being fought with sticks. Generally his best known quotes are summaries of scientific principles – GordonM Dec 10 '18 at 10:26

1 Answers1

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According to The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, this quote is from a letter he sent to Jakob Ehrat in 1952.

Following the citation to the Einstein Archive gets you to this link, although the letter itself is not available for the public to read: Ich habe mich sehr gefreut mit Deinem Brief, zumal ich aus demselben ersehe... (roughly, "I greatly enjoyed your last letter, especially since from it I can tell...", which seems to be the first sentence of the letter).

It would seem that the quote is a translation.

Laurel
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    In case it's not obvious to other non-German-speaking readers here, the German text in this answer is just how that website titled the letter (presumably the opening sentence.) It's not the German version of this quote, which is purportedly contained in the letter that is not available for public viewing. – reirab Dec 06 '18 at 23:56
  • @reirab Yeah I figured that but couldn't get the entire thing to translate properly because I think it might cut off mid-sentence or something. If someone has a good translation, I'd appreciate an edit. – Laurel Dec 07 '18 at 00:04
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    @Laurel The actual title roughly translates to "I was very happy about/upon receiving your letter, especially since from it I can tell..." this appears to be the start of the first sentence. If the letter does indeed contain that quote it's not apparent from the description of the document. – Cubic Dec 07 '18 at 00:30
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    There is what seems to be a serious error of grammar in the German text. Maybe it was right in 1952, but I would be surprised. – Nobody Dec 07 '18 at 00:37
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    I would translate it as "I greatly enjoyed your last letter". And yes, "sich mit einem Brief freuen" is not something you would say nowadays. – Sebastian Redl Dec 07 '18 at 07:34
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    @SebastianRedl. 5 of the 6 letters quoted in the right-hand column begin with the same unidiomatic formula. – fdb Dec 11 '18 at 18:55
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    Here's [another letter](https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/ehri-visualisations/original/433def09c55afefb1d08143a17544dc4.jpg) that uses the structure "sich mit Deinem Brief freuen" from 1941 by a Melanie Oppenhejm. – Schmuddi Dec 12 '18 at 06:17