Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.
Interpretation
Emerson suggests that institutions often resist visionary individuals who challenge the status quo.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the tension between established institutions, such as universities, and innovative thinkers or 'geniuses' who operate outside conventional norms. These institutions, much like churches and monasteries, may feel threatened by the unique perspectives of exceptional individuals, leading to a climate that can be unwelcoming or hostile towards those who seek to redefine or challenge established routines and beliefs.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire graduates to think outside the box.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
We owe our children an environment in which they can flourish, and where law enforcement, the justice system, and society as offers them a fresh start, not a jail cell.
I read books when I was a kid, lots of books. Books always seemed like magic to me. They took you to the most amazing places. When I got older, I realized that I couldn't find books that took me to all of the places I wanted to go. To go to those places, I had to write some books myself.
In a high-IQ job pool, soft skills like discipline, drive and empathy mark those who emerge as outstanding.
Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.
I hope children will be happy with the books I've written, and go on to be readers all of their lives.
I had not expected 'A Brief History of Time' to be a best seller. It was my first popular book and aroused a great deal of interest. Initially, many people found it difficult to understand. I therefore decided to try to write a new version that would be easier to follow.
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