“Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity.”
“No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.”
“18th century scientists, the French in particular, seldom did things simply if an absurdly demanding alternative was available.”
“Persons born in wealth and luxury seldom achieve greatness. They were not born for labour; and, without labour, nothing that is worth having can be won.”
“Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportianate, the absurd and the forbidden.”
“the great is seldom a deterrent to the mediocre”