“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

Variant: Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Last update Nov. 2, 2021. History

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Albert Einstein 702
German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativi… 1879–1955

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Albert Einstein photo

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

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.

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“Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past.”

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“Having encountered many setbacks, Havel lived with a spirit of hope”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

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Context: Having encountered many setbacks, Havel lived with a spirit of hope, which he defined as “the ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” His peaceful resistance shook the foundations of an empire, exposed the emptiness of a repressive ideology, and proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon. He played a seminal role in the Velvet Revolution that won his people their freedom and inspired generations to reach for self-determination and dignity in all parts of the world.

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“It's a rule worth having in mind. Income almost always flows along the same axis as power but in the opposite direction.”

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“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.”

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"...like captured fireflies" (1955); also published in America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (2003), p. 142

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“Great minds are always feared by lesser minds.”

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“We simply must find ways to see each other more clearly. And part of that has to involve collecting and sharing better information about encounters between police and citizens, especially violent encounters.”

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