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In the 23 years of our friendship, I never saw him show jealousy, vanity, bitterness, anger, resentment, or personal ambition. He seemed immune to these emotions. He was beyond any pretension. Although he corresponded with many of the world's most important people, his stationery carried only a watermark —W—for Woolworth's.
在我們二十三年的友誼中，我從未見他表現出妒忌、虛榮、痛苦、憤怒、怨恨或個人野心。他好像對這些感情具有免疫能力似的。他毫無矯飾之心，虛榮之意。雖然他與世界上的許多要人通信，他用的卻是有W水印字母的信箋，水印字母W——五分錢商店伍爾沃思的縮寫。
To do his work he needed only a pencil and a pad of paper. Material things meant nothing to him. I never knew him to carry money because he never had any use for it. He believed in simplicity, so much so that he used only a safety razor and water to shave. When I suggested that he try shaving cream, he said, "The razor and water do the job."
為了做他的工作他只需要一支筆和一本拍紙簿。物質的東西對他毫無意義。我知道他身上從不帶錢，因為他從來不需要用錢。他信奉簡樸，甚至于只用一把安全剃刀和清水刮胡子。當我建議他用一下刮胡膏時，他說：“剃刀和水就夠了。”
But Professor, why don't you try the cream just once? I argued "It makes shaving smoother and less painful."
“但是，教授，為什么你就不能僅僅試用一次刮胡膏呢?”我爭辯說。“它可以讓你刮起胡子來又平滑又不痛。”
He shrugged. Finally, I presented him with a tube of shaving cream. The next morning when he came down to breakfast, he was beaming with the pleasure of a new, great discovery. "You know, that cream really works, " he announced. "It doesn't pull the beard. It feels wonderful." Thereafter, he used the shaving cream every morning until the tube was empty. Then he reverted to using plain water.
他聳了聳肩。最后，我終于送給他一管刮胡膏。第二天早上，當他下樓來用早餐時，他因為有了一大新發現而高興得滿臉含笑你知道，那種刮胡膏還真有效，”他說。“它不扯胡子，感覺好極了。”打那以后，他每天早晨都用那管刮胡膏，直到那一管用完為止。然后他又回復到只用清水刮胡子了。
Einstein was purely and exclusively a theorist. He didn't have the slightest interest in the practical application of his ideas and theories. His E=mc^2 is probably the most famous equation in history — yet Einstein wouldn't walk down the street to see a reactor create atomic energy. He won the Nobel Prize for his Photoelectric Theory, a series of equations that he considered relatively minor in importance, but he didn't have any curiosity in observing how his theory made TV possible.
愛因斯坦完完全全是個理論家。他對自己思想和理論的實際應用絲毫不感興趣。他提出的E=mc^2也許是有史以來最著名的公式——然而愛因斯坦卻不愿費舉足之勞去看反應堆產生原子能。他因其光電理論——他認為比較次要的一系列公式——而獲得諾貝爾獎金，但對于觀察他的理論怎樣使得電視得以產生卻沒有一點好奇心。
