Anecdote 1...

Einstein and an assistant, having finished a paper, searched the office for a paper clip. They finally found one, too badly bent for use. They looked for an implement to straighten it, and after opening many more drawers came upon a whole box of clips. Einstein at once shaped one into a tool to straighten the bent clip. His assistant, puzzled, asked why he was doing this when there was a whole boxful of usable clips. "Once I am set on a goal it becomes difficult to deflect me," said Einstein.

[Einstein said to an assistant at Princeton that this was the most characteristic anecdote that could be told of him.]

Anecdote 2...

The journal Scientific American once ran a competition for the best exposition of relativity in three thousand words. A prize of several thousand dollars was at stake. "I'm the only one in my entire circle of friends who is not entering," remarked Einstein ruefully. "I don't believe I could do it."