His "Nibelungen" are an entirely new and glorious world, towards which I have often yearned, and for which the most thoughtful people will still be enthusiastic, even if the measure of mediocrity should prove inadequate to it!
By this is of course understood the bounds of mediocrity as the one limitation.
Our new artistic philosophers call for the same moral license, for a freedom to wreck heaven and earth with their energy; but the upshot of it all is that a mediocrity is Poet Laureate.
Our modern politicians claim the colossal license of Caesar and the Superman, claim that they are too practical to be pure and too patriotic to be moral; but the upshot of it all is that a mediocrity is Chancellor of the Exchequer.
They invest in mediocrity in the confident hope that it will go many hundred per cent.
Would anyone so far insult the Association as to wish its official exponent to cater to that type of mediocrity which neither improves nor wishes to improve?
It seeks to banish mediocrity as a goal and standard; to place before its members the classical and the universal and to draw their minds from the commonplace to the beautiful.
When the baron du Guenic reached home the splendor of his apartments made him think of the sort of mediocrity of which Beatrix had spoken, and he hated his wealth because it could not belong to that fallen angel.
In very truth the preacher's Pegasus serves the noble enthusiasm of the elect willingly and ardently, and as willingly lends his back to mediocrity to execute more or less doubtful tricks before the eyes and ears of the many-headed crowd.
Domestic mediocrity drove her to lewd fancies, marriage tenderness to adulterous desires.
And mediocrity never yet made a success of a great transportation or productive system such as our railroads or industrial corporations.
They had been all their life mediocre men--not better nor worse than others; this mediocrity now prevailed, as far as their narrow point of view reached, everywhere in the State.
A period of intellectual poverty and mediocrity brought Prussia to the verge of destruction; political passion raised it again.
Independent characters withdrew, deeply disgusted with the narrow-minded rule which now began in most of the States of Germany; common mediocrity again took the helm.
Her notions are too just to allow her to be satisfied with mediocrity in any thing, and for perfection in many things, she thinks that life is too short, and its duties too various and important.
His brother Paolo cultivated the art, but was deficient both in judgment and in ability, and calculated only to execute with mediocrity the designs of others.
Such persons ought however to consider, that the mediocrity of the times compels the historian to notice artists of mediocrity.
I have demonstrated the fact that neither I nor one in a hundred of those charming devotees to art could ever earn a living by art, or do anything except to add to the mediocrity of the amazing art product of this free country.
A uniformity in mediocrity is alleged from the use of the same text-books and methods in all schools, for all grades and capacities.
And photography may be described as the art which enables commonplace mediocrity to look like genius.
The exhibition of works of genius will slowly instruct and elevate the popular taste, and in time the cultivated popular taste will reject mediocrity and demand better things.
Not the mediocrity of soul, and the poverty of argument of a fool like Leonard could touch that.
He was staggered by the conglomeration of mediocrity and untruth which constitutes the artistic treasure of a great people.
But Christophe could see no reason for hiding his contempt for mediocrity or his joy in his own strength, and his joy was shown in no temperate fashion.
Her intelligence made her see the mediocrityof some artist of reputation: but she respected him none the less because of his reputation: and if she met him personally she would admire him: for her vanity was flattered.
He spoke of the difficulties of provincial life, of the mediocrity of the people, the narrow-mindedness, and of his own isolation.
Christophe saw Judith's egoism and coldness, and themediocrity of her character.
Christophe had not yet perceived the mediocrity of his colleagues: and, since he was one of them, they hailed him as a genius.
He would understand a free man, whom German mediocrity was pursuing with its spite and trying to crush.
As she knew their mediocrity she found no pleasure in holding sway over them.
How could he, so clever as he was, love a little creature whose insignificance and mediocritywere patent?
What has most surprised me, since the elevation of my husband has afforded me the opportunity of knowing many persons, and particularly those employed in important affairs, is the universal mediocrity which exists.
La Place, so happily calculated for science, displayed the most inconceivable mediocrity in administration.
It serves to explain why many men of mediocrity were elevated to the highest dignities and honours, while other men of real merit fell into disgrace or were utterly neglected.
Bonaparte speaking to me of him one day said, "Mack is a man of the lowest mediocrity I ever saw in my life; he is full of self-sufficiency and conceit, and believes himself equal to anything.
He would no longer face the fearful alternative of mediocrity or starvation.
I merely insist that I prefer to accept the tenets of mediocrity for my own peace and the peace of others.
Covertly she would watch the eyes of mediocrity widen.
Mediocrity is without imagination, stupid, and makes the world a dull place indeed.
That's the difficulty with individuality; it refuses to be harnessed by mediocrity, and mediocrity holds the whip-hand, always.
My first pursuits were football and then cricket; the first I did not long pursue, and in the second I never managed to rise above mediocrity and what was termed 'the twenty-two.
It raises mediocrity near to a level with the highest talents, if those talents are in company with a disposition that allows the little prudences of the hour incessantly to obscure the persistent laws of things.
He made silent, acidulous comments on certain manifestations of mediocrity placed there by men so much better quartered, better known, better circumstanced than himself.
The answer to that is that mediocrity does not breed genius.
At an epoch when insignificant mediocrity aspired to fame, when typography was the medium of all affectations, and the rivalry of the most insipid personalities became a public pest, he was proud of being modest.
