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
A genius can never expect to have a good time anywhere, if he is a genuine article, but America is about the last place in which life will be endurable at all for an inspired writer of any kind. – Samuel Butler
Children, taught either years beneath their intelligence or miles wide of relevance to it, or both: their intelligence becomes hopelessly bewildered, drawn off its centers, bored, or atrophied. – James Agee
