“In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see. A pretty experiment is in itself often more valuable than twenty formulae extracted from our minds.”

—  Albert Einstein

Conversations with Einstein by Alexander Moszkowski (1971), p. 69 http://books.google.com/books?id=_D3wAAAAIAAJ&q=%22first+lessons+should+contain+nothing+but+what%22#search_anchor. This is just Moszkowski's English translation of a statement he attributed to Einstein in his 1922 book Einstein, Einblicke in seine Gedankenwelt, p. 77 http://books.google.com/books?id=6zHPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=false: "Was die Physik betrifft, fuhr Einstein fort, so darf für den ersten Unterricht gar nichts in Frage kommen, als das Experimentelle, anschaulich-Interessante. Ein hübsches Experiment ist schon an sich oft wertvoller, als zwanzig in der Gedankenretorte entwickelte Formeln." As Moszkowski makes clear in the original German text, this "quotation" is a paraphrasing of his conversation with Einstein.
Attributed in posthumous publications

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