On the record
We bury genius; we send it to jail; we ridicule and mock it, while we send mediocrity and idiocy to college, gilded and crowned.
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “We bury genius; we send it to jail; we ridicule and mock it, while we send mediocrity and idiocy to college, gilded and…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois laments the societal tendency to overlook true talent in favor of mediocrity.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Jan 1, 1903
This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of…
Jan 1, 1903
The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for…
Jan 1, 1903
In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.
Jan 1, 1903
Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.