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.

Quote Investigator’s 2024 investigation identifies the earliest matching attribution in Gilbert Fowler White’s 1942 notes, as reproduced in Robert E. Hinshaw, Living With Nature’s Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (2006), page 62. White’s wording ends with everything is, without the repeated a miracle. The underlying notes and the book page were not inspected in this run; the evidence is secondary. Quote Investigator finds the expanded form in a Liz Smith newspaper column dated 3 February 1989 and in Jon Winokur’s Friendly Advice (1990), both credited to Einstein but without an original Einstein source. Alice Calaprice places the quotation in Probably Not By Einstein in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010), page 483, according to Quote Investigator. Wikiquote likewise treats it as disputed. Earlier all-or-nothing discussions of miracles are parallels, not demonstrated sources of this wording. The attribution is unsubstantiated, not disproved by a known alternative author. This run checked those two research accounts; there are no Einstein source texts in the atlas to search, and the full Einstein archive was not searched.

1. 1942Earliest found · credited to Albert EinsteinWhite’s notes attribute the two-ways saying to Einstein; their date and wording are reported in Hinshaw’s 2006 biography, and White’s source is unexplained.There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything isRobert E. Hinshaw, Living With Nature’s Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books, 2006), chapter 4, quoting White’s personal notes of 1942, p. 62. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 3 February 1989Reworded · credited to Albert EinsteinLiz Smith prints the expanded form, repeating a miracle at the end, and credits Einstein.Liz Smith, ‘Phantom’ fills cash register out West, The Baltimore Sun, 3 February 1989, p. 2C, column 4. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 1990Spread · credited to Albert EinsteinWinokur’s quotation collection includes the modern form under Einstein’s name.Jon Winokur (compiler and editor), Friendly Advice (New York: Dutton, 1990), p. 142, Life. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 2006Spread · credited to Albert EinsteinHinshaw publishes the 1942 note, providing the retrospective documentary witness used in later discussions of the attribution.Robert E. Hinshaw, Living With Nature’s Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Books, 2006), p. 62. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

The saying circulates as Einstein’s advice about approaching life with wonder. Its early documentary witness is Robert E. Hinshaw’s 2006 biography of geographer Gilbert Fowler White, which reproduces the saying from White’s notes dated to 1942. White attributes the line to Einstein without explaining whether he heard it himself or obtained it from someone else.

The same life can be viewed as wholly ordinary or as continually astonishing; the contrast invites an attitude of wonder.

A recorded attribution made during Einstein’s lifetime is not automatically a statement by Einstein. Nor does this aphorism establish a scientific argument about miracles or a complete account of his religious beliefs.

• A misquotationThere are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is. The shorter ending reported from White’s 1942 notes in Hinshaw (2006), according to Quote Investigator; this is a historical variant of an unverified attribution, not an authenticated Einstein original. Where it was seen

Life, Wisdom

• You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. (not found) Marcus Aurelius
• The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. (not found) Mark Twain
• Do not try to find the past again in the future. André Gide
• Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder. (not found) Henry David Thoreau
• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (not found) Mahatma Gandhi

• quoteinvestigator.com/2024/05/04/everything-miracle
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

“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.” Attributed to Albert Einstein. No. The saying was attributed to Einstein in notes dated 1942, but no original Einstein source has been established; the attribution remains unverified. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/there-are-only-two-ways-to-live-your-life/ (checked 29 October 2026).

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