“Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.”

Les esprits médiocres condamnent d'ordinaire tout ce qui passe leur portée.
Maxim 375.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Original

Les esprits médiocres condamnent d'ordinaire tout ce qui passe leur portée.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding." by François de La Rochefoucauld?
François de La Rochefoucauld photo
François de La Rochefoucauld 156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

Related quotes

Isaac Asimov photo

“Any system which allows men to choose their own future will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
Chinmayananda Saraswati photo

“To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own.”

Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher

Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago

Ayn Rand photo
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.

Clarence Darrow photo

“The usual is always mediocre. When nature takes it into her head to make a man, she fits him with her own equipment and educates him in her own school.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Voltaire (1916)

Patricia Churchland photo

“Although many philosophers used to dismiss the relevance of neuroscience on grounds that what mattered was “the software, not the hardware”, increasingly philosophers have come to recognize that understanding how the brain works is essential to understanding the mind.”

Patricia Churchland (1943) philosopher

Introductory message at her homepage at the University of California, San Diego http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/pschurchland/presentation.html, 2013

Anthony de Mello photo

“Eternal means timeless — no time. The human mind cannot understand that. The human mind can understand time and can deny time. What is timeless is beyond our comprehension.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

"The Illusion of Rewards", p. 43
Awareness (1992)
Context: Do you know what eternal life is? You think it's everlasting life. But your own theologians will tell you that that is crazy, because everlasting is still within time. It is time perduring forever. Eternal means timeless — no time. The human mind cannot understand that. The human mind can understand time and can deny time. What is timeless is beyond our comprehension. Yet the mystics tell us that eternity is right now. How's that for good news? It is right now. People are so distressed when I tell them to forget their past. They're crazy! Just drop it! When you hear "Repent for your past," realize it's a great religious distraction from waking up. Wake up! That's what repent means. Not "weep for your sins.": Wake up! understand, stop all the crying. Understand! Wake up!

Thomas Hardy photo
Jacob Bronowski photo

Related topics