We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Interpretation
This quote warns against prioritizing intellect above all else, highlighting its limitations in the absence of personal values and character.
Albert Einstein emphasizes the importance of balancing intellect with humanity. While intellect can be a powerful tool, it lacks the essential qualities that define a person's character, such as empathy, morality, and personality. He suggests that over-reliance on intellect without the guiding influence of our personal values can lead to a sterile and unfulfilling existence.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a lecture about the importance of ethical values in education.
I cannot then believe in this concept of an anthropomorphic God who has the powers of interfering with these natural laws. As I said before, the most beautiful and most profound religious emotion that we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. And this mysticality is the power of all true science.
If I would follow your advice and Jesus could perceive it, he, as a Jewish teacher, surely would not approve of such behavior.
I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
In the middle of adversity there is great opportunity.
I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.
To me the worst thing seems to be a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of pupils and produces a subservient subject.
I used to work very long hours. Then I started to realize that the stuff that I was writing in the late afternoons, I was generally throwing out. So I quit earlier than I used to.
I find that when I come upon something that I think is a historical revelation, I have the sort of adrenaline rush that I imagine a gambler gets in Las Vegas when he hits the jackpot. It's still tremendously exciting to me, and I think all of my peers in the business feel the same way.
There is no discovery without risk and what you risk reveals what you value.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
No single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable.
Do your work, but do your thing.
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