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In the 23 years of our friendship, I never saw him show jealousy, vanity, bitterness, anger, resentment, or personal ambition. He seemed immune to these emotions. He was beyond any pretension. Although he corresponded with many of the world's most important people, his stationery carried only a watermark —W—for Woolworth's.
在我们二十三年的友谊中，我从未见他表现出妒忌、虚荣、痛苦、愤怒、怨恨或个人野心。他好像对这些感情具有免疫能力似的。他毫无矫饰之心，虚荣之意。虽然他与世界上的许多要人通信，他用的却是有W水印字母的信笺，水印字母W——五分钱商店伍尔沃思的缩写。
To do his work he needed only a pencil and a pad of paper. Material things meant nothing to him. I never knew him to carry money because he never had any use for it. He believed in simplicity, so much so that he used only a safety razor and water to shave. When I suggested that he try shaving cream, he said, "The razor and water do the job."
为了做他的工作他只需要一支笔和一本拍纸簿。物质的东西对他毫无意义。我知道他身上从不带钱，因为他从来不需要用钱。他信奉简朴，甚至于只用一把安全剃刀和清水刮胡子。当我建议他用一下刮胡膏时，他说：“剃刀和水就够了。”
But Professor, why don't you try the cream just once? I argued "It makes shaving smoother and less painful."
“但是，教授，为什么你就不能仅仅试用一次刮胡膏呢?”我争辩说。“它可以让你刮起胡子来又平滑又不痛。”
He shrugged. Finally, I presented him with a tube of shaving cream. The next morning when he came down to breakfast, he was beaming with the pleasure of a new, great discovery. "You know, that cream really works, " he announced. "It doesn't pull the beard. It feels wonderful." Thereafter, he used the shaving cream every morning until the tube was empty. Then he reverted to using plain water.
他耸了耸肩。最后，我终于送给他一管刮胡膏。第二天早上，当他下楼来用早餐时，他因为有了一大新发现而高兴得满脸含笑你知道，那种刮胡膏还真有效，”他说。“它不扯胡子，感觉好极了。”打那以后，他每天早晨都用那管刮胡膏，直到那一管用完为止。然后他又回复到只用清水刮胡子了。
Einstein was purely and exclusively a theorist. He didn't have the slightest interest in the practical application of his ideas and theories. His E=mc^2 is probably the most famous equation in history — yet Einstein wouldn't walk down the street to see a reactor create atomic energy. He won the Nobel Prize for his Photoelectric Theory, a series of equations that he considered relatively minor in importance, but he didn't have any curiosity in observing how his theory made TV possible.
爱因斯坦完完全全是个理论家。他对自己思想和理论的实际应用丝毫不感兴趣。他提出的E=mc^2也许是有史以来最著名的公式——然而爱因斯坦却不愿费举足之劳去看反应堆产生原子能。他因其光电理论——他认为比较次要的一系列公式——而获得诺贝尔奖金，但对于观察他的理论怎样使得电视得以产生却没有一点好奇心。
