Albert Einstein’s happiness note sold for $1.6m

[Guest Nicole]

The two notes sold for $1.56m and $240,000 - way higher than their estimates

A note written by Albert Einstein containing advice on happy living has sold at an auction house in Jerusalem for $1.56m (£1.19m).

Einstein gave the note to a courier in Tokyo in 1922 instead of a tip.

He had just heard that he had won the coveted Nobel prize for physics and told the messenger that, if he was lucky, the notes would become valuable.

Einstein suggested in the note that achieving a long-dreamt goal did not necessarily guarantee happiness.

The German-born physicist had won the Nobel and was in Japan on a lecture tour.

When the courier came to his room to make a delivery, he did not have any money to reward him.

Einstein (seen here in 1950) wrote the hotel notes shortly after winning the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics

Instead, he handed the messenger a signed note - using stationery of the Imperial Hotel Tokyo - with one sentence, written in German: "A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it."

A second note written at the same time simply reads: "Where there's a will, there's a way." It sold for $240,000, Winner's auction house said.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41742785?mc_cid=7c1c4ce5be&mc_eid=e1f26bda00

[Guest]

That is profound!