I have known no man of genius who had not to pay, in some affliction or defect, either physical or spiritual, for what the gods had given him. – Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, 1911

Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience. – George-Louis de Buffon

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