But genius, and even great talent, springs less from seeds of intellect and social refinement superior to those of other people than from the faculty of transforming and transposing them. To heat a liquid with an electric lamp requires not the strongest lamp possible, but one of which the current can cease to illuminate, can be diverted so as to give heat instead of light. To mount the skies it is not necessary to have the most powerful of motors, one must have a motor which, instead of continuing to run along the earth's surface, intersecting with a vertical line the horizontal line which it began by following, is capable of converting its speed into lifting power. Similarly, the men who produce works of genius are not those who live in the most delicate atmosphere, whose conversation is the most brilliant or their culture the most extensive, but those who have had the power, ceasing suddenly to live only for themselves, to transform their personality into a sort of mirror, in such a way that their life, however mediocre it may be socially and even, in a sense, intellectually, is reflected by it, genius consisting in reflecting power and not int he intrinsic quality of the scene reflected. . Marcel Proust
About This Quote

When you are in high school, there is a tendency to think that you are the only one in the entire world who is smart. There is also a sense of entitlement that comes with being "smart". It's hard for smart people to see the value in most people, because most people aren't really intelligent enough to understand genius. In school, you might be told that you're smart, but when it comes down to it, you're just average. We all have our own unique perspectives on things, and we can all do amazing things if we just try our hardest.

Source: Within A Budding Grove, Part 2

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More Quotes By Marcel Proust
  1. Love is a striking example of how little reality means to us.
  2. Now there is one thing I can tell you: you will enjoy certain pleasures you would not fathom now. When you still had your mother you often thought of the days when you would have her no longer. Now you will often think of days...
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