“Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities”
“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.”
“Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.”
Isaac D'Israeli, The Curiosities of Literature, "Men of Genius Deficient in Conversation".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
“Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.”
Men of Genius Deficient in Conversation.
Curiosities of Literature (1791–1834)
“Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend.”
Culture
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
“The citizen who criticizes his country is paying it an implied tribute.”
"The Vietnam Fallout," speech to the Bureau of Advertising of the American Newspaper Association, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City (April 28, 1966), in Senator Fulbright: Portrait of a Public Philosopher (1966)
“We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.”
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird
“And the food for the soul passes, candid and free, without paying tribute to the customs.”
Source: Platero and I (1917), Ch. 2 : White Butterflies, as translated by Eloïse Roach (1957).
Context: The man wants to stick his iron pick in the little basket, and I do not prevent him. I open the knapsack, and he sees nothing in it. And the food for the soul passes, candid and free, without paying tribute to the customs.
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
Source: The Valley of Fear
