“Geniuses never pay attention.”

— Michael Crichton, book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Michael Crichton121

American author, screenwriter, film producer 1942–2008

Valentine Telegdi (1922–2006) American physicist

as quoted by [Richard Feynman, "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!": adventures of a curious character, W. W. Norton, 1985, 0393316041, 253]
Attributed

“Society expresses its sympathy for the geniuses of the past to distract attention from the fact that it has no intention of being sympathetic to the geniuses of the present.”

Celia Green (1935) British philosopher

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

“who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

“From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary (1988)

“Since then I never pay attention to anything by "experts". I calculate everything myself.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

After having been led astray on neutron-proton coupling by reports of "beta-decay experts".
Part 5: "The World of One Physicist", "The 7 Percent Solution", p. 255
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (1985)