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About this quote

What does it mean?
In a culture that values average performance, exceptional talent is seen as a threat.
In plain terms
In a place where everyone is average, smart people are seen as dangerous.
What can you take from it?
Average societies often resist or punish excellence.

Where it applies

  • workplace
  • education
  • politics

Putting it to work

  • recognize bias
  • value excellence

Questions to consider

  • Why hate the best?
  • Is safety better than growth?

Another view

Genius can sometimes be disruptive or hard to integrate.

More from Robert G. Ingersoll

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  2. Intellectual liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of the mind, and without it, the world is a prison, the universe is a dungeon.

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  3. If there is a God who will damn his children forever, I would rather go to hell than to go to heaven and keep the society of such an infamous tyrant. I make my…

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