Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.

Einstein wrote this line in a personal letter to his son Eduard (“Tete”) in the early 1930s, during a period of family strain and growing political turmoil in Europe. Eduard was struggling emotionally and academically, and Einstein—often away from home and increasingly concerned about his son’s wellbeing—offered encouragement in a homely, practical metaphor. The bicycle image reflects Einstein’s fondness for everyday analogies to express abstract ideas, here applied not to physics but to resilience: maintaining equilibrium in life by continuing purposeful activity rather than becoming immobilized by worry or setback.

The remark treats “balance” not as a static state one can achieve and then preserve, but as a dynamic process sustained through motion. Like a cyclist who stays upright by continuing to pedal, a person maintains psychological and moral steadiness by engaging with life—working, learning, adapting, and moving through difficulties. The line implies that stagnation magnifies instability: when we stop, we wobble. Its enduring appeal lies in its plainness and portability, offering a philosophy of resilience that favors forward momentum over perfection, and action over anxious self-monitoring.

1) “Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
2) “To keep your balance you must keep moving.” (often quoted alone)
3) “Life is like riding a bicycle—to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”