Lee said Einstein: “In the middle of the mess, find simplicity; Among the discord, find harmony; Find the opportunity in difficulties "?

On the Internet, the phrase attributed to the Nobel Laureate about the need to search for simplicity, harmony and opportunities is widespread. We checked whether the famous physicist said something like that.

This advice indicating the authorship of Albert Einstein Found On many sites with collections Quote famous personalities and aphorisms. It is placed on their pages by users of social networks (Twitter, Facebook*, Instagram*, "VKontakte"), It is popular on the blog platforms ("Zen" Livejournal). On the Internet you can find many pictures With this phrase. It is also used by modern Authorspublishing books about motivation And self -development. Media Included This is a statement c Collections Quotes of the famous physicist.

Almost 70 years have passed since the day of the death of Albert Einstein, and during this time all the well -known works, letters and other texts of the scientist have been studied, most of them were digitized. According to will Physics, a significant part of them is stored at Jewish University in Jerusalem, in electronic Archive Which is presented by the largest collection of texts written by Einstein. Similar databases with digitized work and letters are collected in Princeton And California technological Universities (USA). “Verified” failed to find there the English -language version of this quote (“out of Clutter, Find Simplicity; From Discord Make Harmony; and Finally in the Middle of Difficulti Lies Opportunity”), which is widespread in the English -language The Internet segment is no less than its translation - in the Russian -speaking.

In 2011, Princeton University published a collection The Ultimate QUOTABLE EINSTEIN, where all the well -known statements of the scientist were collected, and both real and attributed to him erroneously. It is in the section with the latter that this quote is located. The compilers indicate that the first advice (finding simplicity) is probably the periphez of numerous statements by a physicist on similar topics, the second (to find harmony) goes back to the ancient Roman poet Horace, and the third is just an expression that was in use for many centuries.

Our colleagues from the project The Quote Investigator, specializing in checking the attribution of quotes, Found, in all likelihood, the first time when these recommendations were mentioned in connection with the name of Einstein. In 1979, an American physicist John Archibald Wheeler He published in the journal Newsweek an article dedicated to the famous scientist, where he wrote: “At Einstein, there were three additional rules that are extremely important in our science, in our problems and in our time. Firstly, in the middle of the mess, find simplicity. Secondly, among the discord, find harmony. Thirdly, find the opportunity in difficulties. ” Nevertheless, Wieler did not attribute this statement to Einstein himself, rather, conveying his own impressions of his colleague research. Later in the same year, he again listed these rules in relation to Einstein's work in interview The publication Cosmic Search, but at that time did not claim that the statement belongs to the Nobel laureate itself. 

Probably, later this phrase began to be attributed to Einstein, as they took Wieler’s words as a quote, and then they completely forgot about his role in the appearance of aphorism. Nevertheless, these tips are not found in any of the digitized archives with texts belonging to Einstein, so there is no reason to believe that the Nobel laureate has ever written or pronounced something like that. And Wieler, who first connected this phrase with the name of his famous colleague, judging by the wider context, rather describes his impressions of Einstein’s works than ascribes him this statement.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Comet Photo Ag (Zürich), CC by-SA 4.0Via Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

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