We must beware the revenge of the starved senses, the embittered animal in its prison.
J. B. PriestleyRead
We should like to have some towering geniuses, to reveal us to ourselves in colour and fire, but of course they would have to fit into the pattern of our society and be able to take orders from sound administrative types.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the paradox of needing great individuals to enlighten society while also acknowledging societal constraints on them.
J. B. Priestley suggests that while society yearns for towering geniuses who can illuminate human potential and creativity, these brilliant individuals must still conform to the existing societal framework and take direction from those who are more administrative in nature. This highlights a tension between the desire for innovation and the realities of social structure, implying that true genius may be stifled by the very systems that benefit from it.
Themes
GeniusSocietyCreativityInnovationAdministration
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on innovation in art, this quote can demonstrate the balance needed between creativity and societal norms.
More from J. B. Priestley
All quotes →But some of us are beginning to pull well away, in our irritation, from...the exquisite tasters, the vintage snobs, the three-star Michelin gourmets. There is, we feel, a decent area somewhere between boiled carrots and Beluga caviare, sour plonk and Chateau Lafitte, where we can take care of our gullets and bellies without worshipping them.
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A novelist who writes nothing for 10 years finds his reputation rising. Because I keep on producing books they say there must be something wrong with this fellow.
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Much of writing might be described as mental pregnancy with successive difficult deliveries.
J. B. PriestleyRead
There is romance, the genuine glinting stuff, in typewriters, and not merely in their development from clumsy giants into agile dwarfs, but in the history of their manufacture, which is filled with raids, battles, lonely pioneers, great gambles, hope, fear, despair, triumph. If some of our novels could be written by the typewriters instead of on them, how much better they would be.
J. B. PriestleyRead
We plan, we toil, we suffer - in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol's eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.
J. B. PriestleyRead
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