Einstein

"“Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify.” Einstein also recognized the power of simplicity, and it was the key to his breakthroughs in physics. He noted that the five ascending levels of intellect were, “Smart, Intelligent, Brilliant, Genius, Simple.”"

"Einstein posted a sign in his office at Princeton which read, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”"

"‘You’re a very clever boy, Einstein. An extremely clever boy. But you have one great fault – you’ll never let yourself be told anything.’"

"He thinks there are a few people who are special – people like Einstein and Gandhi and the gurus he met in India – and he’s one of them … Once he even hinted to me that he was enlightened."

"Einstein, Leonardo, Keynes, Dylan. The first couple are perhaps more likeable than the last two, but they all have this in common – the highest possible regard for what they could beget, and a sense of greatness. They were iconoclasts; bold and self-possessed; expecting and requiring nothing from themselves except that what was beyond the reach of ordinary mortals. They expected to produce work of the highest originality and importance. It’s hard to imagine how anyone can be great without having similar reach and vision. In our own league, whether the premier division or something worthwhile but less grand, great expectations are still the midwife of great creation."

"Like Bruce Henderson when he had discovered the Experience Curve, like Jeff Bezos when he and David Shaw worked out the blueprint for Amazon (and before Bezos left Shaw to start the new venture), like Bill Bain before he deserted Bruce Henderson to found Bain & Company, Einstein had been transformed. Like them all, he knew that he was privy to insights nobody else had, and that he would change the world. Similar transforming certainty affected three other people we have already met in these pages – Steve Jobs, Paul of Tarsus, and Viktor Frankl."

"Einstein proceeded by deep thinking from first principles – he proceeded from irrefutable axioms and observations proven beyond doubt, building on each one to move towards a new hypothesis about the nature of the universe. Einstein’s breakthrough was his theory of relativity, altering forever the face of the Earth."

"While still a teenager, Einstein appears to have had two extraordinarily fertile expectations. We have touched on one of them earlier – that nature exhibits hidden harmonies which speak the language of mathematics and are precise, invariable and perfect; and secondly, that he had been put on the planet to lift the cloak of underlying reality. At a time of emotional stress when he was eighteen, Einstein found solace in his quest: ‘Strenuous intellectual work and looking at God’s nature are the reconciling, fortifying yet relentlessly strict angels that shall guide me through all of life’s troubles.’"

"For reasons that are still a bit mysterious today, Columbia signed Dylan before he had any significant following, and that contract drew attention to him. Before long, however, it was the inherent authority of his music and lyrics which gave Dylan his success. In this he was like the thinkers. He was like Frankl, Leonardo, Einstein and Keynes – their personal vehicles were their dramatic insights, expressed in unforgettable images and words."