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Creativity Quote by Brian May

"Einstein got most of the things right about black holes. I'm not an expert, I must admit"

About this Quote

Name-dropping Einstein is the oldest trick in the smart-guy book, and Brian May knows it. The line pivots on a casual flex: he invokes the ultimate scientific authority to frame black holes as something he can speak about, then immediately undercuts himself with a shrugging, almost British self-effacement. That push-pull is the point. It lets him participate in a high-status conversation without triggering the predictable backlash reserved for celebrities who wander into science like they own the place.

“Most of the things right” is doing sly work, too. It’s admiration with an escape hatch. Einstein becomes both shield and foil: yes, the genius was broadly correct, but even Einstein didn’t nail everything (and black holes, historically, are where relativity’s elegance meets its weirdest implications). May gestures toward that nuance without having to litigate it. The phrase carries a wink: in science, “most” is a careful, almost conservative claim; in pop talk, it sounds generous. He bridges both registers.

The “I’m not an expert, I must admit” lands as reputational management. May is a rock icon who also has a serious astronomy background; the subtext is that he’s more qualified than he’s pretending to be, but he’s choosing humility as a rhetorical posture. In a culture primed to distrust expertise and to punish public figures for overreach, the line performs a rare, appealing stance: curiosity without entitlement. It’s the celebrity-science ideal, calibrated not to impress, but to be allowed in the room.

Quote Details

TopicScience
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
May, Brian. (2026, January 17). Einstein got most of the things right about black holes. I'm not an expert, I must admit. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/einstein-got-most-of-the-things-right-about-black-46991/

Chicago Style
May, Brian. "Einstein got most of the things right about black holes. I'm not an expert, I must admit." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/einstein-got-most-of-the-things-right-about-black-46991/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Einstein got most of the things right about black holes. I'm not an expert, I must admit." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/einstein-got-most-of-the-things-right-about-black-46991/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Brian May (born July 19, 1947) is a Musician from England.

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