Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Autoritätsdusel ist der größte Feind der Wahrheit.

Original text (German)

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Source, in full

Letter to Jost Winteler (July 8th, 1901), quoted in The Private Lives of Albert Einstein by Roger Highfields and Paul Carter (1993), p. 79. Einstein had been annoyed that Paul Drude, editor of Annalen der Physik, had dismissed some criticisms Einstein made of Drude's electron theory of metals.

Variants

Authority gone to one's head is the greatest enemy of truth. (Collected Papers, Volume 1, 1987)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Albert Einstein (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.