Albert Einstein's secret to happiness, which was written on hotel stationary and given to a messenger in lieu of a tip, has sold for $1.56 million, The Washington Post reported.
Einstein, whose name has become synonymous with scientific genius, offered two hand-written notes to the messenger at the Imperial Hotel in Toyko while on a lecture tour in 1922 after he had just learned he won the Nobel Prize in physics, the newspaper said.
"A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness," Einstein wrote in German on one of the notes, according to the Winner's Auction and Exhibition website.
The auction website said Einstein did not have money for a tip to the messenger and decided to leave two notes of his writing. The scientists told the messenger, according to the website, that he hoped that the future value of the notes will be "much higher than a standard tip."
The website said the note was estimated to sell for anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000. Agence France-Presse reported that bids were taken in person, online and by phone, jumping quickly from the starting price of $2,000 and rose steadily for 20 minutes.
"I am really happy that there are people out there who are still interested in science and history and timeless deliveries in a world which is developing so fast," the seller told AFP on condition of anonymity after the sale.
USA Today said Einstein's second note, which read, "where there's a will, there's a way," sold for $240,000. The initial estimated value of that hand-written note was thought to be from $4,000 to $6,000.
AFP reported that letters Einstein wrote about God, Israel and physics sold for nearly $210,000 at a June Jerusalem auction.
The famed scientist served as a non-resident governor of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, leaving the institution his archives when he died in 1955, making it the owner of the world's most extensive collection of his documents, AFP noted.
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