When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work.
One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking.
"I have an idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times. I'll bet I could give it for you."
Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!"
When they arrived at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly.
Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool.
Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."
What's the Best Einstein story ever? Here it is:
Einstein was teaching a graduate seminar in Princeton, but since he was Einstein his lectures were full to overflowing. He lectured at top speed that day, filling five or six blackboards with tensor calculus. He said, "You can see that it is obvious that..."
Suddenly he stopped writing and just stood still for a moment.
He turned to his audience and said, "Wait one minute, please."
He vanished into the prep room. One minute became two, two became five, and five became a half hour. Nobody left.
After about forty-five minutes, he reappeared, finished the equation on the blackboard and turned to the audience. "I was right. It IS obvious!"
