I Have No Particular Talent. I Am

Man Tries To Make For Himself In The Fashion That Suits Him Best A Simplified And Intelligible Picture Of The World; He Then Tries To Some Extent To Substitute This Cosmos Of His For The World Of Experience, And Thus To Overcome It. This Is What The Painter, The Poet, The Speculative Philosopher, And The Natural Scientists Do, Each In His Own Fashion. Each Makes This Cosmos And Its Construction The Pivot Of His Emotional Life, In Order To Find In This Way Peace And Security Which He Can Not Find In The Narrow Whirlpool Of Personal Experience.

The Aim Of Science Is, On The One Hand, As Complete A Comprehension As Possible Of The Connection Between Perceptible Experiences In Their Totality, And, On The Other Hand, The Achievement Of This Aim By Employing A Minimum Of Primary Concepts And Relations.

Most Of The Fundamental Ideas Of Science Are Essentially Simple, And May, As A Rule, Be Expressed In A Language Comprehensible To Everyone.

I Must Try, However, As Best I Can, Although I Am Very Conscious Of The Fact That Our Feelings And Strivings Are Often Contradictory And Obscure And That They Cannot Be Expressed In Easy And Simple Formulas.

Bear In Mind That The Wonderful Things You Learn In Your Schools Are The Work Of Many Generations. All This Is Put In Your Hands As Your Inheritance In Order That You May Receive It, Honor It, Add To It, And One Day Faithfully Hand It On To Your Children.