“Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone fails at something.”
David Gemmell book Legend
Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 10
“Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.”
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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Do you have more details about the quote "Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable." by Harold Bloom?
Harold Bloom13
American literary critic and scholar 1930–2019Related quotes
“Connecting with others during difficult times makes the trials more bearable.”
John Townsend (1952) Canadian clinical psychologist and author
Where Is God (2009, Thomas Nelson publishers)
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
Playboy interview (May 1995)
Context: In the real world, very smart people fail and mediocre people rise. Part of what makes people fail or succeed are skills that have nothing to do with IQ. Also, the idea that intelligence can be gauged by an IQ test is erroneous.
“In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
“Habit makes all things bearable.”
Quod male fers, adsuesce, feres bene.
Ovid book Ars amatoria
Book II, line 647 (tr. James Michie)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.”
Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general
“Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to be as mediocre as possible.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Quote magazine (15 June 1958)
1950s
Context: When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed. Women want mediocre men, and men are working hard to be as mediocre as possible.
Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country
A Man Without a Country (2005)
Context: If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.