The Famous Quote That Albert Einstein NEVER Actually Said…

If you search the internet for the quote “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle” you'll undoubtedly see Albert Einstein's quote attached to it.

There's hundreds of images with this quote, blog posts and quote lists galore.

The interesting thing is…

Every single one of them has incorrectly attributed this quote to Albert Einstein. The truth is, we don't know who said the quote and haven't been able to identify any printed materials attributing it to anybody other an Albert Einstein.

Now if you're wondering, “how could every single website on the internet be wrong about attributing this quote to Albert Einstein?” then that's a fair question.

And, we have an answer.

See, in another venture from some years back, we wanted to license that exact quote to put on shirts, coffee mugs, etc. We contacted the official licensee of Albert Einstein and sent the email below on August 18th, 2016:

Is this quote attributable to Einstein? And if so, what kind of licensing costs are there as related to things like mugs, shirts, etc?

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ”

Thanks!

Anthony Iliakostas, the Business Affairs Manager promptly replied with this on the same day:

Thanks for your email.  The quote you provided is not by Einstein.  However, if you plan on selling any merchandise bearing Einstein’s likeness or any of his quotes, that would require a license fee and subsequent royalty payments depending on how much merchandise is sold.

So there you have it! One of the most famously attributed quotes to Albert Einstein simply wasn't his…