Since when was genius found respectable?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Genius is often unconventional and disruptive, so it rarely fits into societal norms of respectability.
- In plain terms
- Truly gifted people are usually too strange or bold to be considered respectable.
- What can you take from it?
- Do not expect innovation to conform to standard expectations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What does society value more: order or brilliance?
- Can respectability stifle creativity?
Another view
Some geniuses are indeed respectable and respected by their peers.
More from Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Nay, if there's room for poets in the world A little overgrown, (I think there is) Their sole work is to represent the age, Their age, not Charlemagne's,-this …
Permalink to quote #31 Man, the two-fold creature, apprehends The two-fold manner, in and outwardly, And nothing in the world comes single to him. A mere itself,-cup, column, or cand…
Permalink to quote #33 That he, in his developed manhood, stood A little sunburnt by the glare of life; While I . . it seemed no sun had shone on me.
Permalink to quote #30
Related quotes
In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa quote #1 Today's shocks are tomorrow's conventions.
Carolyn HeilbrunCarolyn Heilbrun quote #1 A man must know how to fly in the face of opinion; a woman to submit to it.
Anne Louise Germaine de StaelAnne Louise Germaine de Stael quote #2