The World As We See It Is

Physical Concepts Are Free Creations Of The Human Mind, And Are Not, However It May Seem, Uniquely Determined By The External World.

I Was Sitting In A Chair In The Patent Office At Bern When All Of A Sudden A Thought Occurred To Me: "if A Person Falls Freely He Will Not Feel His Own Weight." I Was Startled. This Simple Thought Made A Deep Impression On Me. It Impelled Me Toward A Theory Of Gravitation.

A Man Who Is Convinced Of The Truth Of His Religion Is Indeed Never Tolerant. At The Least, He Is To Feel Pity For The Adherent Of Another Religion But Usually It Does Not Stop There. The Faithful Adherent Of A Religion Will Try First Of All To Convince Those That Believe In Another Religion And Usually He Goes On To Hatred If He Is Not Successful. However, Hatred Then Leads To Persecution When The Might Of The Majority Is Behind It.

I Am Exclusively Occupied With The Problem Of Gravitation And Hope With The Help Of A Local Mathematician Friend [marcel Grossman] To Overcome All The Difficulties. One Thing Is Certain, However, That Never In Life Have I Been Quite So Tormented. A Great Respect For Mathematics Has Been Instilled Within Me, The Subtler Aspects Of Which, In My Stupidity, I Regarded Until Now As Pure Luxury.

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.