“To have time was at once the most magnificent and the most dangerous of experiments. Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre.”

“It's a very salutary thing to realize that the rather dull universe in which most of us spend most of our time is not the only universe there is. I think it's healthy that people should have this experience.”

“A lot of people are afraid to accept mediocrity because they believe that if they accept it, they’ll never achieve anything, never improve, and that their life won’t matter.
This sort of thinking is dangerous. Once you accept the premise that a life is worthwhile only if it is truly notable and great, then you basically accept the fact that most of the human population (including yourself) sucks and is worthless. And this mindset can quickly turn dangerous, to both yourself and others.”

“I, who have so much and so universally adored this [greek], "excellent mediocrity," 32 of ancient times, and who have concluded the most moderate measure the most perfect, shall I pretend to an unreasonable and prodigious old age?”

“Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.”

“A friend may be nature's most magnificent creation.”

“And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”

“It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do. There is no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one. Idleness, like kisses, to be sweet must be stolen.”

“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.”

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”