“Genius is one of the many forms of insanity.”
“Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never. And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so ready to treat great men as lunatics.”
“Klopstock was questioned regarding the meaning of a passage in his poem. He replied, 'God and I both knew what it meant once; now God alone knows.'”
“The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities.”
“The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.”
“Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses.”
