“If he were a man of strong mind, it only gave him fits; but a person of mere average intellect it usually sent mad.”

“There is only a difference of proportion of madness between an average man and a mad man; the quality of madness is the same.”

“The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair.”

“Her mere proximity gave him the most peculiar sensation, like the kind of heat sent out when a log shatters to ash in a fire.”

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”

“To allow only the kind of art that the average man understands is the worst small-mindedness and the murder of mind and spirit. It is my conviction that the intellect can be certain that in doing what most disconcerts the crowd, in pursuing the most daring, unconventional advances and explorations, it will in some highly indirect fashion serve man - and in the long run, all men.”