It strikes me as unfair, and even in bad taste, to select a few of them for boundless admiration, attributing superhuman powers of mind and character to them. This has been my fate, and the contrast between the popular estimate of my powers and achievements and the reality is simply grotesque.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a sense of unfairness in how society attributes admiration to a select few while disregarding the true capabilities of others.
In this quote, Albert Einstein reflects on the disparity between public perception and personal reality, emphasizing how a few individuals are glorified with extraordinary traits and abilities, while the complexities and contributions of others are often overlooked. Einstein critiques the tendency to idolize certain figures, which creates a skewed understanding of talent and achievement in society, suggesting that this selective admiration undermines the larger truth of human capabilities.
In practice
In a discussion about celebrity culture and societal values, you might use this quote to illustrate the point of selective admiration.
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.
A church is a soul-saving company or it is nothing.
The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.
God never measures the mind... He always put His tape measure in the HEART
A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be made against invasion by an idea.
The public interest is not always the same as the national interest. Going to war with people who are not our enemy in places that are not a threat doesn't make us safe, and that applies whether it's in Iraq or on the Internet. The Internet is not the enemy. Our economy is not the enemy.
Somehow we are going to have to develop a concept of enough for those at the top and at the bottom so that the necessities of the many are not sacrificed for the luxuries of the few.
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