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Albert Einstein (14 Mar 1879 - 18 Apr 1955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. Short biography of Albert Einstein >>

Albert Einstein
“That’s Relativity”

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“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity..”

— Albert Einstein

Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (1957)

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Being an early form of this quote, it may be more faithful to Einstein’s original words. It appeared in the News Chronicle (14 Mar 1949), as given and cited The New Penguin Dictionary of Modern Quotations (2000). 1

A variation is often seen, and being much enjoyed, is often spread between websites, and gathered in various printed quote collections, but typically without any citation to the original source. However, the Yale Book of Quotations (2006) is more meticulous, and cites James B. Simpson, Best Quotes of '54, '55, '56 (1957).2 The reprint edition of Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) annotates it very briefly that it is a recollection at the time of Einstein’s death (18 Apr 1955), and expresses it as:3

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute—and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

The wording is slightly different in Einstein in America: The Scientist's Conscience in the Age of Hitler and Hiroshima (1985), but it tells how the quote originated as a quip for reporters. In this book, Jamie Sayen, explains in his own words: 4

“Einstein devised the following explanation for [his secretary, Helen Dukas] to give when asked to explain relativity: An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”

So, these variants of the quote, printed after his death, are poorly documented as to when and where they were said. The way the idea was expressed may have changed with each recorded different retelling. Webmaster has not yet seen a hard copy of the early News Chronicle article from 1949. If you have access to a copy, please make contact the Webmaster so this web page can better clarify the context of this quote:

“When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That’s relativity.”

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Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

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