Written in 1946, when Einstein was sixty-seven, and published in 1949 in the volume Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, this essay sets out the development of his ideas rather than the events of his life. Einstein opens by describing the task as something like writing his own obituary, and states that for a man of his kind what matters is what he has thought and how.

He recalls two early experiences of wonder: a compass shown to him as a small child, and a book of Euclidean geometry he read at twelve. He describes losing his religious belief through popular science reading, and his difficulties with the examination system.

The greater part of the essay examines the foundations of physics: the limits of classical mechanics, the reasoning behind special and general relativity, and his view that quantum mechanics, though successful, gives an incomplete description of individual systems.