
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Variant: Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.
"A Clean Conscience Never Relaxes"
I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938)
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Variant: Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.
No. 256 (24 December 1711)
The Spectator (1711–1714)
Source: "Japan marks 76th anniversary of WWII surrender with emperor expressing "deep remorse" over wartime atrocities" in Xinhua http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-08/15/c_1310128713.htm (15 August 2021)
Source: Kinski Uncut : The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski (1996), p. 2
Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (19 March 1940).
1940s
Variant: Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.