Abstract

I am quite unqualified to write prefaces for other people's books, particularly a book like the present devoted to the words of wiser people than myself. Yin and Zhang, two of the book's editors, were bent on getting me to write for them, I think perhaps because, influenced by what used to be the accepted thing, they felt they had to find a "youth" of less than fifty years of age to provide some "decoration"! But "decoration" is by no means the method of a scientist. I would prefer to make use of the opportunity to frankly air an opinion