“In Paris, when certain people see you ready to put your foot in the stirrup, some of them pull you back by the coattail, others loosen the buckle of the saddle-girth so that you’ll fall and break your head; this one takes the shoes of your horse, that one steals your whip. The least treacherous is the one you see coming up to shoot you at point blank range. You have enough talent my dear fellow, soon to be acquainted with the horrible unending battle which mediocrity wages against superiority. If you have a headache you will be called a lunatic. If you have one outburst of temper, they will say you are a social misfit. In short, your good qualities will become your failings, your failings will become vices, and your virtues will be crimes.”
“The Atheist’s Mass”, Honoré de Balzac, 1836.
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