Original artwork, not a still
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The joke works because it sounds like Einstein: a physicist's dry confession that the cosmos might have limits and human stupidity might not. That fit is probably why the tag stuck. The misattribution is the lesson: a good line finds the famous name that suits it. Perls's original even carried a hedge, 'as far as we know', that later retellings dropped.
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In context
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There is no evidence Einstein said it. The earliest version Quote Investigator found is from Frederick Perls, the Gestalt therapist, in his 1947 book Ego, Hunger, and Aggression, where he credits it to a great astronomer and adds the phrase 'as far as we know'. Perls named Einstein outright in two 1969 books, once as a remark made to him and once in a longer form with the tag about the universe. Wikiquote lists the line as of unknown origin and incorrectly attributed to Einstein. A French precursor about limitless stupidity is credited to Alexandre Dumas in a dictionary of around 1865.
Sources (2)
- Quote Investigator: Two Things Are Infinite: The Universe and Human StupidityReply from Quote InvestigatorReference checked
- Wikiquote: StupiditySection EReference checked
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