...disgrace. A fiery soul, which working out its way 1 Fretted the pigmy body to decay, > And o'erinformed the tenement of clay. J A daring pilot in extremity:...Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high 160 He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great...

...touchstone of a man of wit." — Moliere "Melancholy men of all others are most witty." — Aristotle "Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide." — John Dryden "A man who has provoked the shaft of wit cannot complain that he smart from it." —...

...which, working out its way, Fretted the pigmy body to decay, And o'er-informed the tenement of clay. A daring pilot in extremity, Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high, 160 He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit....

...these were the figures that epitomised in the public mind the archetypal union of madness and genius. 'Great wits are sure to madness near allied; And thin partitions do their bounds divide' wrote Dryden, while in a IT^-century etching, Melancolicus proclaims 'the price of wisdom is melancholy'....

...which working out its way, Fretted the Pigmy Body to decay: And o'er informed the Tenement of Clay. A daring Pilot in extremity; Pleased with the Danger,...the Storms; but for a Calm unfit, Would steer too near the Sands, to boast his Wit. Great Wits are sure to Madness near allied; And thin Partitions do...

...but more able', but in Dryden's hands this becomes a recklessness which endangers the ship of state: A daring pilot in extremity: Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms;2' Shaftesbury 'Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name', 'patriot' being a common self-description...

...Shakespeare's grouping of "the lunatic, the lover and the poet" and John Dryden's observation that "Great wits are sure to madness near allied, /And thin partitions do their bounds divide" (1681) — is tantamount to an affirmation that some aberrations from the norm are socially and existentially...

...context, as it often was from the seventeenth century onwards, it suggested a different meaning. Dryden's Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide, and even Schopenhauer's 'genius is nearer to madness than the average intelligence' echo the misinterpreted...

...in turn told it to me.) That behavior brings to mind the lines by the poet John Dryden (1631-1670): Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. While in Europe, Oppenheimer sought help of at least two psychiatrists: In June of 1926 [he told an...

...philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all tendencies towards melancholia. — Aristotle, Problemata Great wits are sure to madness near allied/ And thin partitions do their bounds divide. —John Dryden, English dramatist (1831-1900) There is no great genius without a touch of madness —...