Every man of genius is considerably helped by being dead. – Robert S. Lynd

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. – John F. Kennedy, in an address to Nobel Prize winners

In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance,” Essays, 1841