Of what use is genius, if the organ is too convex or too concave and cannot find a focal distance within the actual horizon of human life?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Genius is useless if the mind cannot adapt to the real limits of human existence.
- In plain terms
- Great talent means nothing if it cannot function in the real world.
- What can you take from it?
- Ensure your abilities fit the practical realities of life.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does your talent serve life?
- Are you too idealistic?
Another view
Some genius lies in transcending limits rather than fitting them.
More from Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.
Permalink to quote #148 Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing comp…
Permalink to quote #150 A man is a golden impossibility. The line he must walk is a hair's breadth. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.
Permalink to quote #147
Related quotes
It is not in the world of ideas that life is lived. Life is lived for better or worse in life, and to a man in life, his life can be no more absurd than it can…
Archibald MacLeishArchibald MacLeish quote #1 George Dillon: It's easy to answer the ultimate questions - it saves you bothering with the immediate ones.
John OsborneJohn Osborne quote #2 There comes a point when a dream becomes reality and reality becomes a dream.
Frances FarmerFrances Farmer quote #3