[...] In every case, the nobler the genius, the less noble the fate. A small genius gets fame, a great genius gets obliquy, a greater genius gets despair; a god gets crucifixion.

The curse of genius is not, as Vigny thought, that it is adored but not loved; it is that it is neither loved nor adored .

Wilde was never so much attested a genius as when the man on the railway platform spat in his face when he was gyved. A great harm has come to many geniuses: their faces are unspat.