The lunatic fringe wags the underdog. – H. L. Mencken

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. – John Stuart Mill

The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy. – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities. – Johann von Goethe