Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of Circumstances.
 F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned (1922). copy citation

Context

“Intelligence is a mere instrument of circumstances. There are people who say that intelligence must have built the universe—why, intelligence never built a steam engine! Circumstances built a steam engine. Intelligence is little more than a short foot-rule by which we measure the infinite achievements of Circumstances. "I could quote you the philosophy of the hour—but, for all we know, fifty years may see a complete reversal of this abnegation that's absorbing the intellectuals to-day, the triumph of Christ over Anatole France—"” source