Thus I came… to a deep religiosity, which, however, found an abrupt ending at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true… Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience—an attitude which has never again left me.

To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

To-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire , the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!

Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.