Hi Penultimate,
I don’t think I’ve ever read Chesapeake but I have read The Scarlet Letter. That was in high school! I don’t remember it much. When you quoted Einstein I got the thought that I knew a quote that came from him, but on looking for it I couldn’t find it. Maybe it was from someone else. It dealt with discovering secrets or mysteries of science during quiet moments, and not while thinking.
Here’s some quote’s of Einstein I picked out. He sure has a lot of them. I got them from BrainyQuote.com-
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot.
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.
I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow - perhaps it all will.
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.
The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.
*****
(Here are some I thought were pretty funny.)
I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference!
If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
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

They understand the fact that true democracy is nothing but a fallacy whereby idiots are elected into power and these idiots then have to cater to the morons that elected them in the first place.
Sol Palha