we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader. This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed on from old to young and today involves a whole generation." - Meaning and context.">
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Ch. 51 "The Goal of Human Existence" (1943)
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And certainly we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader. This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed on from old to young and today involves a whole generation.

— Albert Einstein

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "And certainly we should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. It cannot lead, it can only serve; and it is not fastidious in its choice of a leader. This characteristic is reflected in the qualities of its priests, the intellectuals. The intellect has a sharp eye for methods and tools, but is blind to ends and values. So it is no wonder that this fatal blindness is handed on from old to young and today involves a whole generation." in the context of "Ch. 51 "The Goal of Human Existence" (1943)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Albert Einstein" (Quotes, 1950s, Out of My Later Years (1950): A collection of Einstein's essays which cover a period of 1934 to 1950.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 08, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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Albert Einstein

About Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a Jewish German theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein is known for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Together, relativity and quantum mechanics are the two pillars of modern physics. He won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.