Man Behind the Theory: 30 Intriguing Facts About Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein once received a letter from a girl lamenting that she couldn't be a scientist because of her gender. He responded, "I do not mind that you are a girl, but the main thing is that you yourself do not mind. There is no reason for it."

2. Albert Einstein was approached so often by fans wanting explanations of his theories he would say, "Pardon me, sorry! Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein."

3. Albert Einstein mused that he would have liked to have been a plumber, and promptly was awarded honorary membership in the plumbers’ union.

4. Albert Einstein considered himself an agnostic, not an atheist: "You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth."

5. Albert Einstein wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered with his brain in his head to "discourage idolaters" but the doctor performing the autopsy put the brain in formaldehyde and kept it for himself.

Albert Einstein often would appear in front of women in a silk bathrobe where it would “accidentally” pop open. He would then make a move depending on the woman’s reaction.

7. Albert Einstein hated wearing socks. In a letter to his wife, he said that the reason he stopped wearing them was that his big toe always ended up making a hole in them.

8. When Albert Einstein met Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin remarked, “The people applaud me because everybody understands me, and they applaud you because no one understands you.”

9. Albert Einstein and his wife Mileva Maric had a daughter in 1902, one year before they were married. The existence of "Lieserl" was concealed and only discovered in 1986. Einstein is believed to have never met her and what happened to her is a mystery.

10. The famous photo of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue was taken at the end of his 72nd birthday celebration. A photographer tried to persuade him to smile for the camera for the last time, but having smiled for photographers many times that day, Einstein stuck out his tongue instead.

Albert Einstein would charge people $1 for an autograph. He'd then donate this money to charity.

12. In 1952, Albert Einstein was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel. He declined, saying that as a scientist trained to deal with objective facts, he lacked the aptitude and experience to deal with people.

13. When little Albert Einstein saw his sister Maria for the first time he thought she was a toy and asked: "Yes, but where does it have its small wheels?"

14. When Albert Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd read in a newspaper that a family was killed because of a faulty seal in their refrigerator (with toxic ammonia), they decided that they would invent the refrigerator without moving parts, hence no seals. This became the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator.

15. Albert Einstein, as part of his divorce, offered his wife all the money he would get if he were to win the Nobel prize. She accepted and years later he delivered on his promise.

Albert Einstein worked as an electrician on the Oktoberfest 1896.

17. When Albert Einstein was asked if he stood on the shoulders of Isaac Newton, he replied “No, on the shoulders of Maxwell.”

18. Albert Einstein was a fan of the children's puppet show, Time for Beany. On one occasion, the physicist interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, "You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It's Time for Beany."

19. Albert Einstein used the same soap for shaving and washing because of a firm conviction that two kinds of soap needlessly complicate life.

20. In 1916, Albert Einstein wrote an article proposing a more efficient shape for wings. The plane built with his wings barely left the ground.

When Albert Einstein arrived in Paris by train in 1922, many high profile reporters, diplomats were waiting for him on the platform. Instead, he sneaked out the back car and off down the tracks, laughing "like a child."

22. Albert Einstein actually had good grades in school, with the highest scores in his A-levels for algebra, geometry, descriptive geometry, history, and physics. His reputation for being bad at school comes from his dislike of school authority, leading to clashes with teachers.

23. Albert Einstein married his first cousin, Elsa Löwenthal. Not only were their mother's sisters, but their fathers were cousins too, making the married couple second cousins as well. The relationship began while Einstein was still married to his first wife, physicist Mileva Marić.

24. Albert Einstein smoked cigarette butts picked off from the street and went out sailing when there was no wind because it was 'more challenging.'

25. When asked what was the speed of sound Albert Einstein said: "[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books."