Although Einstein felt no need for religious ritual and belonged to no formal religious ritual and belonged to no formal religious group, he was the most deeply religious man I have known. He once said to me, “Ideas come from God,” and one could hear the capital “G” in the reverence with which he pronounced the word. On the marble fireplace in the mathematics building at Princeton University is carved, in the original German, what one might call his scientific credo: “God is subtle, but he is not malicious.” By this Einstein meant that scientists could expect to find their task difficult, but not hopeless: The Universe was a Universe of law, and God was not confusing us with deliberate paradoxes and contradictions.

　　I first met 变态烈焰sf Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J. He had been among the first to be invited to the Institute, and was offered carte blanche as to salary. To the director’s dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: It was far too small. The director had to plead with him to accept a larger salary.

　　Einstein failed his entrance examinations at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, in Zurich, but was admitted a year later. There he went beyond his regular work to study the masterworks of physics on his own. Rejected when he applied for academic positions, he ultimately found work, in 1902, as a patent examiner in Berne, and there in 1905 his genius burst into fabulous flower.

　　I was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before approaching him about some ideas I had been working on. When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, “Come” — with a rising inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, his hair characteristically awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.

　　As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering— and altogether endearing— request: “Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly.” This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all vestiges of fear were gone.