"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
About this Quote
The phrase “Before God” is doing heavy rhetorical work. Einstein wasn’t a conventional theist, which makes the invocation less sermon and more vantage point: God as the imagined horizon where human ranking systems stop mattering. It’s a cosmic courtroom where credentials, IQs, and national myths are inadmissible evidence. In that light, “equally” isn’t sentimental equality; it’s leveling. Everyone gets the same tiny share of comprehension and the same talent for delusion.
Context matters: a 20th-century physicist whose work reshaped reality also watched modernity industrialize arrogance - technocracy, nationalism, and the weaponization of genius. The subtext is a warning to experts and their fans: knowledge expands our power faster than our judgment. Einstein is nudging us toward epistemic humility, not as a virtue-signaling posture, but as a survival skill. The smartest people can be catastrophically wrong, and the rest of us can be brilliantly right by accident. Under the biggest frame imaginable, we’re all amateurs.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Einstein, Albert. (2026, January 15). Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-god-we-are-all-equally-wise-and-equally-13640/
Chicago Style
Einstein, Albert. "Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-god-we-are-all-equally-wise-and-equally-13640/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/before-god-we-are-all-equally-wise-and-equally-13640/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.









