【Aeon】愛因斯坦：這話我可沒說過

06-20

錯誤引用愛因斯坦的現象，主要原因是人們對於神秘和帶著「偶像」和「天才」標籤的權威人物的追捧——這是人之常情。相對論在上世紀20年代開始風行，但其實很多人只是在牽強附會。

愛因斯坦：這話我可沒說過

作者：Marina Benjamin

譯者：徐唱 & 李林治

校對：周樹人

策劃：魯迅 & 徐唱

Thus spake Albert

愛因斯坦：我沒說過這句話。

You probably know a quote from him. He probably never said it. How did Einstein become a touchstone of all that is wise?

你或許聽過他的名人名言。他或許從未說過那句話。愛因斯坦為何會成為一切智慧事物的象徵？

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In late 2017, a sheet of paper bearing a 13-word sentence in German in the original handwriting of Albert Einstein went on sale at an auction house in Jerusalem. The city is home to the archives of Einstein, which he willed before his death in 1955 to the Hebrew University, the institution that he helped to found in the 1920s.

去年十月，阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦手寫的一張13字德語字條在耶路撒冷拍賣。他的檔案館也在那個城市。1955年，愛因斯坦在生前將他的資料遺贈給了該市的希伯來大學——他在上個世紀二十年代幫助建立的學校。

The paper was inscribed and autographed in Japan on the stationery of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and dated November 1922, the month in which Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He stayed at this hotel during his massively popular lecture tour of Japan, when he attracted even more attention than the Japanese imperial family. Apparently somewhat embarrassed by such frenetic publicity, Einstein decided to record some of his thoughts and feelings about life in writing. He gave this particular sentence (and another shorter one) to a Japanese delivery courier, either because the courier refused to accept a tip, in keeping with local practice, or because Einstein had no small change. 『Maybe if you』re lucky those notes will become much more valuable than just a regular tip,』 Einstein apparently told the unnamed Japanese courier, according to the document』s seller, reported by the BBC to be the courier』s nephew.

被拍賣的那句話是寫在一張東京帝國酒店的便簽紙上。愛因斯坦在上面簽署了自己的名字，日期是1922年11月（他也在那個月被授予諾貝爾物理學獎）。當時，他在日本進行大規模的巡迴演講，這些演講甚至比他和日本皇室的會晤更受人關注。很顯然，因為這種公眾狂熱而引起某種窘迫感促使愛因斯坦用寫作來記錄一些想法和感受。他將那張字條（以及另外更短的一張）送給了一位日本的快遞小哥——這個舉動可能是因為快遞小哥為了遵循日本習慣而拒絕接受小費，也可能是因為愛因斯坦當時沒有零錢。據文件的賣家（BBC報道稱是那位快遞員的侄子）說，愛因斯坦顯然告訴過那位無名的日本快遞小哥：「如果你夠幸運，這些字條將比尋常的小費更加值錢。」

The Jerusalem auction house estimated that the note would sell for between $5,000 and $8,000. Bidding started at $2,000. For about 20 minutes, a flurry of offers pushed up the price rapidly, until the final two bidders vied for the trophy by telephone. By the end, the price had risen to a scarcely believable $1.56 million.

耶路撒冷拍賣行估算那張字條將會拍到5000到8000美金。叫價從2000美金開始。在開始的約20分鐘內，一陣快速的應價將價格飛速提升，直到剩餘兩位出價人通過電話進行最後的競爭。結果，拍價升至幾乎讓人無法相信的156萬美元。

vie forcompete keenly with sb. (for sth); rival sb. for sth 與某人（為某事物）激烈競爭; 與某人爭奪某事物

Translated into English, Einstein』s sentence reads: 『A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.』

如果翻譯成英文，愛因斯坦的字條寫著：「比起永不安寧地追逐成功，平靜謙遜的生活帶來更多的幸福。」

Today, Einstein is history』s most-quoted scientist: way ahead of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking, judging by the number of Einstein quotations in his online entry on Wikiquote – and way ahead of his 20th-century non-scientist contemporaries Winston Churchill, George Orwell and George Bernard Shaw.

直至今日，愛因斯坦是歷史上被引用名言最多的科學家：遠遠超過亞里士多德、伽利略、牛頓、查爾斯·達爾文和史蒂芬·霍金。如果從Wikiquote上面愛因斯坦的引用條目來說，他的引用次數也遠遠超過同在20世紀的非科學家名人，例如溫斯頓·丘吉爾、喬治·奧威爾和蕭伯納。

entry |?entri| n. item written in a list, a diary, an account book, etc. （寫進清單﹑ 日記﹑ 帳本等的）項目

Unsurprisingly, Einstein is quoted as an authority on science. For example: 『The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe is that it is comprehensible.』 But he is more frequently quoted on a wide variety of non-scientific subjects, including education, intelligence, politics (he was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952), religion, marriage, money and music-making. On education we get: 『Education is what remains after you have forgotten everything you learned in school.』 On intelligence: 『The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.』 On politics: 『Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.』 On religion: 『God does not play dice.』 On marriage: 『Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.』 On money: 『Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.』 On music: 『Death means that one can no longer listen to Mozart.』 And on life in general: 『Things should be made as simple as possible but not any simpler.』 All of the quotations have appeared, and reappeared, in the world』s leading newspapers, and are extensively disseminated online.

意料之中的是，愛因斯坦在科學領域上被引證為權威。例如：「這個宇宙最讓人難以理解的是就是它可以被理解」。而意料之外的是，他更多時候是在非科學領域被引用，包括在教育、智慧、政治（他在1952年被邀請出任以色列總統）、宗教、婚姻、金錢和音樂創作方面。在教育上我們有：「教育就是你忘記所有在學校所學一切之後剩下的東西」。在智慧上有：「天才和愚蠢之間的區別就是天才是有極限的」。在政治上有：「精神錯亂就是一遍又一遍地重複做同一件事，而期待會有不同的結果」。在宗教上有：「上帝不擲骰子」。在婚姻上有：「男人因為希望她們永不改變而迎娶女人。女人因為希望他們改變而嫁給男人。結果男女雙方總是對彼此失望。」在金錢上有：「並不是每一件能被計算的事情都是有意義的，也不是每一件有意義的事情都是能被計算的」。在音樂上有：「死亡意味著再也不能聽莫扎特了」。還有關於生命的：「儘可能簡化事情，但勿將事情本身視為簡單」。所有這些語錄都在世界知名報刊上不斷出現，也在網路上廣泛流傳。

disseminate |d??sem?ne?t|v. spread (ideas, beliefs, etc.) widely 散布, 廣為傳播（思想﹑ 信仰等）

But here we are making an assumption. Did Einstein definitely say or write the above statements? Judging by the detective work on display in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, on Wikiquote and on QuoteInvestigator.com, plus my own research as an Einstein biographer, there is ample room for doubt. In fact, not a single one of the above quotations has been definitely attributed to Einstein, with the exception of 『God does not play dice』! And even this is a pithy rendition of Einstein』s precise comment on quantum theory, in a 1926 letter to the physicist Max Born, where he wrote (in German): 『The theory says a lot, but does not bring us any closer to the secrets of the 「old one」. I, at any rate, am convinced that He is not playing at dice.』

但說到這兒，我們其實是在假設這些話真是愛因斯坦說的。愛因斯坦真的說過或寫過上面這些話嗎？根據《愛因斯坦語錄》、Wikiquote、以及QuoteInvestigator.com中的考證成果，再加上我自己對愛因斯坦生平的研究，這些所謂的「愛因斯坦」語錄有很大的質疑空間。實際上，上述的語錄除了「上帝不擲骰子」以外，沒有一句是可以百分百確定是愛因斯坦說的。就連那句「上帝不擲骰子」也是他對量子理論評論的一個簡化版本——這原本是愛因斯坦在1926年（用德文）寫給物理學家馬克斯·玻恩信中的一句話：「這個理論說了很多，但是它並不能帶我們走近舊理論中的秘密。從任何角度來說，我都相信祂不在玩骰子。」

In other words, quotations from Einstein vary vastly in authenticity. Many can be traced to his writings; some are based on the recollections of those who knew him well; some have mutated over time; some resemble his thinking, or seem consistent with his personal behaviour but are not really his. And a number are simply bogus, invented to take advantage of his reputation as a genius and iconoclast – one being a notorious Einstein quotation apparently embracing astrology as 『science』. As Calaprice observes: 『Some sound genuine, some are apocryphal, and others are no doubt fakes, created by those who wanted to use Einstein』s name to lend credibility to a cause or an idea.』

換句話來說，愛因斯坦語錄的真實性參差不齊。很多句子可以被追溯到他的作品，一些句子來源於曾了解他的人的回憶；一些句子在時間的長河中慢慢變色；一些句子看起來和他的思想或個人行為相似，但其實並不是他所說的。還有數量可觀的一些就僅僅是虛構的，為的就是他作為一個天才和打破傳統之人的名聲。正如卡拉普斯所觀察到的那樣：「一些句子聽起來是真的，一些句子是可疑的，而其他的句子毋庸置疑是杜撰的，是那些想利用愛因斯坦名頭來為他們的事業或思想增加可信度的人編造的。」

So why are we still fascinated enough by Einstein to embroider, and even manufacture, extensive quotations from him? The answer must be as diverse, complex and unique as the man and his life, but is surely rooted in Einstein』s scientific genius. But there must be much more to Einstein』s appeal, which goes far beyond the world of science, than his great thinking power. In 2005, Arthur C Clarke – whose own writings and personality reached well beyond readers and cinemagoers who like science fiction – put Einstein』s enduring global fame down to 『the unique combination of genius, humanist, pacifist and eccentric』. While Newton, for example, is a household name, how many advertisers would think to use his image – as they frequently do Einstein』s – to promote a product for the general public, except perhaps apples? No politician is likely to drop Newton』s name in a speech, and Newton is seldom quoted outside a scientific context. Of course, Newton biographies continue to be written, but Newton does not pop up in newspaper headlines, cartoons and ordinary conversation. There are only a handful of well-known anecdotes about Newton, and no Newton jokes. One cannot imagine a popular book entitled 『The Quotable Newton』.

所以為什麼我們對愛因斯坦如此著迷，以至於去大規模地加工、甚至捏造他的語錄呢？基於他多樣、複雜和獨特的人物個性與人生經歷，答案也一定是多樣的。不過可以肯定的是，他的科學天才是一切的基礎。然而，比起他的思維力量，我們對他的著迷更多來源於超出科學世界的個人魅力。2005年，亞瑟·查理斯·克拉克將愛因斯坦長久的世界聲譽歸因於「天才、人文主義者、和平主義者和怪人的特殊組合」。（其實克拉克自己的作品和性格的關注度也不僅限於他的讀者和觀影者）再譬如說，牛頓也是家喻戶曉的名字，但多少廣告商會像用愛因斯坦的名字那樣頻繁地用牛頓的形象向公眾推廣產品呢？當然，如果他們的產品是蘋果的話，他們或許會那麼做。沒有政客會在演講中拋出牛頓的名字，也鮮有人在科學範疇以外引用牛頓的話。當然還是會有人繼續寫牛頓的傳記，但是牛頓這個名字不會突然出現在新聞標題、卡通或日常談話當中。坊間流傳的牛頓軼事屈指可數，更沒有關於他的任何笑話。你是不是也無法想像一本流行讀物的名字是《牛頓名言100例》。

anecdote|??n?kdo?t| n. short, interesting or amusing story about a real person or event 軼事, 逸聞（關於真人真事的短小有趣的事）

Einstein and Newton shared a great deal in their scientific work, but had very little in common as human beings. For all Einstein』s skepticism about personal relationships and institutional life, his two unsuccessful marriages and family tragedies (his second son, Eduard, spent his last three decades in a Swiss mental hospital), he was frequently highly sociable. He was a regular public speaker, kept up a vast correspondence with friends, colleagues and strangers, and made constant efforts to help scientific 『rivals』 and newcomers – for example, the then-unknown Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose, with whom he created Bose-Einstein statistics.

愛因斯坦和牛頓在科學研究上有很多共同之處，但作為人，他們卻鮮有相似之處。儘管愛因斯坦懷疑人際關係和制度性生活、有兩段失敗的婚姻和家庭悲劇（他的次子艾多拉德人生的最後三十年在瑞士精神病院度過），但他依舊常常社交。他常常公開演講，和大量的朋友、同事和陌生人保持聯繫，不斷地幫助科學『對手』和新人——比如，在當時還不知名的印度數學家薩特延德拉·納特·玻色，愛因斯坦和他共同創造了玻色-愛因斯坦統計。

Unlike Newton, Einstein』s disagreements over science and all other matters – except anti-Semitism and Nazism – were conducted without polemic, and usually without rancour. There is no malice even in his long and inconclusive battle with Bohr over quantum theory. Einstein hit hard but not in order to wound. Arguing with his close friend Born on the same subject in the 1940s and 』50s, the closest Einstein came to an ad hominem attack was the sardonic comment: 『Blush, Born, blush!』

不同於牛頓，愛因斯坦對於科學和其他事情的不同意見——除了反猶太主義和納粹主義外——都不是一種激烈抨擊的態度，而且通常不帶恨意。即便在他和玻爾對於量子理論長期的、無結果的辯論中，他也不帶一絲惡意。愛因斯坦辯口利辭，但不會傷人。和好友波恩在上世紀40和50年代辯論同一問題時，愛因斯坦最像人身攻擊的話，也只不過是那句嘲笑性質的評價：「臉紅吧，波恩，臉紅吧！」

sardonic |sɑ:r?dɑ:n?k| adj. expressing scorn, use in a grimly humorous way; mocking 嘲笑的; 譏笑的

In addition, almost all the public causes that Einstein supported were admirable and far-sighted. Many required moral courage. He stood up to be counted – and attacked – against anti-Semitism, segregation and the lynching of black people in the US; against the witch-hunts of McCarthyism, the build-up of the military-industrial complex, and against the drift towards nuclear war, at a time when few of these causes was either fashionable or 『respectable』. Instead of basking in his fame and enjoying himself with physics, music and sailing, Einstein fought oppression wherever he thought his name and reputation might have a desirable impact. One cannot say that his various interventions were decisive, but there is ample testimony that he gave hope to the persecuted and influenced public debate.

此外，幾乎所有愛因斯坦支持的公共事業，都是令人敬佩和富有遠見的。其中很多事業需要道德勇氣。他反對反猶太主義，反對種族隔離和美國針對黑人的私刑；反對針對麥卡錫主義的政治迫害，反對軍工複合體，以及反對支持核戰爭的趨勢。他因此經受風浪，甚至收到攻擊，而當時這些事業既不流行也不『值得尊敬』。愛因斯坦既沒有溺於聲名，也沒有獨自享受物理、音樂和航海的樂趣，而是在認為他的名字和聲譽可能獲得可觀影響的情況下去抗爭壓迫。雖不能說他的介入起了決定性的作用，但他絕對給遭到迫害的人帶去了希望，也對公共辯論產生了影響。

persecute |?p?:rs?kju:t| v. treat sb. cruelly, esp. because of his race, his political or religious beliefs, etc. 迫害某人（尤指基於種族﹑ 政治或宗教信仰等原因）

It』s worth noting that Einstein was himself inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, and he shared Gandhi』s indifference to material success – though he rejected Gandhi』s view that civil disobedience could be weaponised against the Nazis. In 1952, Einstein called Gandhi 『the greatest political genius of our time』. Gandhi proved 『of what sacrifice man is capable once he has discovered the right path. His work on behalf of India』s liberation is living testimony to the fact that man』s will, sustained by an indomitable conviction, is more powerful than material forces that seem insurmountable.』

值得一提的是，愛因斯坦本人是受到了甘地的啟發。他認同甘地不在乎物質成功的理念，儘管他不同意甘地的另一理念，即非暴力不合作可以當做武器來對抗納粹。1952年，愛因斯坦稱甘地為「我們這個時代最偉大的政治天才」。甘地證明了「一旦一個男人發現了正道，到底能犧牲多少。不屈不撓的信念所支撐的意志，比起看似不可逾越的物質力量，更加有力。他對於印度解放所做的貢獻，便是活生生的證明。」

indomitable |?n?d?m?t?bl| adj. that cannot be subdued or defeated; unyielding 不可屈服的; 不可戰勝的

Einstein』s answer to religion, which was tantamount to sacralising the scientific endeavour, has been taken seriously across the religious spectrum. In 2004, the biologist and militant atheist Richard Dawkins wrote that:

愛因斯坦對宗教的解答是將科學之路神聖化，這一觀點在宗教領域受到很大的重視。2004年，生物學家、激進的無神論者理查德·道金斯寫道：

Einstein was profoundly spiritual, but he disowned supernaturalism and denied all personal gods … I gladly share his magnificently godless spirituality. No theist should presume to give Einstein lessons in spirituality.

愛因斯坦有深邃的內在信仰，但他不承認超自然主義，也否認所有的人格神……我欣然同意他那宏偉的無神精神。有神論者都不應該覺得自己能給愛因斯坦上一堂精神課。

How much do artists revere him? During Einstein』s lifetime, Max Brod – Franz Kafka』s literary executor – wrote a novel, his most famous work, Tycho Brahe』s Path to God (1915), in which the character of Kepler was closely based on Einstein, whom Brod came to know in Prague in 1911-12. Brod commented that Einstein 『time and again filled me with amazement, and indeed enthusiasm, as I watched the ease with which he would, in discussion, experimentally change his point of view, at times tentatively adopting the opposite view, and viewing the whole problem from a new and totally changed angle』. William Carlos Williams, E E Cummings and the Czech writer Karel ?apek, have all mentioned Einstein in their works.

藝術家有多尊敬他？愛因斯坦的一生中，馬克斯·勃羅德——卡夫卡作品的出版者——一生最著名的小說《蒂科·布拉赫走向上帝之路》（1915）中，人物開普勒基本就是按照愛因斯坦原型設計的，勃羅德1911-12年在布拉格與愛因斯坦相識。勃羅德說愛因斯坦『一次又一次讓我驚奇，讓我真正感受到熱情，正如我觀察他在討論中會實驗性地改變觀點，嘗試接受相反的看法，從全新的角度看待整個問題。』威廉·卡洛斯·威廉斯，卡明斯，和捷克作家卡雷爾·恰佩克在他們的作品中都提及了愛因斯坦。

As for the more subtle influences of Einstein』s ideas on artists, attempts have been made to link him with the works of, among other modernist writers who use multiple viewpoints, T S Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Lawrence Durrell. But as the authors of the study Einstein as Myth and Muse (1985) admit, there is no clinching evidence. Referring to Durrell』s Alexandria Quartet (1957-60), Alan Friedman and Carol Donley comment honestly: 『Simply because writers say they are using relativity … does not mean either that they understand it or that their adaptations of relativity principles succeed artistically.』

至於愛因斯坦對藝術家的印象所產生的更細微的影響，人們嘗試將他和艾略特，弗吉尼亞·伍爾夫和勞倫斯·達雷爾，以及其他使用多種觀點的現代主義作家的作品聯繫起來。但正如Einstein as Myth and Muse一書作者承認的那樣，這一點並沒有決定性的證據。艾倫·弗里德曼和卡羅爾·唐利引用達雷爾的《亞歷山大四部曲》（1957-60），誠實地說道：「僅僅因為作者說他們使用相對論……既不代表他們懂，也不代表他們對相對論的改編在藝術上取得了成功。」

It is tempting to recall here Einstein』s comment on the philosophers of relativity: 『the less they know about physics, the more they philosophise』. And perhaps also the physicist Paul Dirac』s unintentionally amusing warning about trying to link science and art: 『In science, one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it』s the exact opposite.』

在此回憶愛因斯坦對相對論的哲學的評論，是很有吸引力的：「他們知道的物理越少，他們就越高談闊論」。或許人們還可以想起物理學家保羅·狄拉克那雖非有意但有些逗樂的一句話——他當時是對試圖把科學和藝術聯繫的行為發出警告：「在科學上，一個人想要以所有人都理解的方式告訴人們之前從未聽過的東西。但在詩歌上，這正好是相反的。」

The phenomenon of Einstein misquotation is largely driven by an all-too-human desire for mystification and for authority figures, epitomised by the two words 『iconic』 and 『genius』. When relativity first became popular in the 1920s, many people assumed that Einstein could be cited to the effect that everything is relative, including truth; that all observations are subjective; and that anything is possible. 『I like quoting Einstein,』 as the Jewish-American author, historian and broadcaster Studs Terkel declared with a grin in an interview with The Guardian on his 90th birthday in 2002. 『Know why? Because nobody dares contradict you.』 Terkel』s quip is especially ironic, given Einstein』s lifelong distrust of authority – particularly in physics, education or politics. But even here, Einstein commands the last word. In an authentic aphorism for an unnamed friend, he wrote in 1930: 『To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.』

錯誤引用愛因斯坦的現象，主要原因是人們對於神秘和帶著「偶像」和「天才」標籤的權威人物的追捧——這是人之常情。相對論在上世紀20年代開始風行，但其實很多人只是在牽強附會，以為相對論是說世間萬物都是相對的，真理也是相對的，所有的觀察都是主觀的，因而任何事都是可能的。「我喜歡引用愛因斯坦，」美籍猶太作家、史學家、廣播員斯特茲·特克爾2002年90歲生日接受《衛報》採訪時咧著嘴笑道。「知道為什麼嗎？因為沒人敢反駁你。」特克爾的俏皮話很諷刺，因為愛因斯坦一生都不信任權威——尤其是在物理、教育和政治。但1930年，他寫給一位不知姓名的朋友：「為了懲罰我藐視權威，命運讓我變成了權威。」

contempt |k?n?tempt| n. feeling that sb/sth is completely worthless and cannot be respected 輕視; 蔑視