Brandon Low

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.”
― James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin

“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became 'geniuses' (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all pos­sessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to con­struct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“MEDIOCRITY AS A MASK. — Mediocrity is the happiest mask which the superior mind can wear, because it does not lead the great majority — that is, the mediocre — to think that there is any disguise. Yet the superior mind assumes the mask just for their sake — so as not to irritate them, nay, often from a feeling of pity and kindness.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“Years ago, it had occurred to me that Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing: the defining characteristic of the organism is striving.”
― Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air