“In this age, the mere example
of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a
reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people
should be eccentric.
Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength
of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has
generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral
courage which it contained.
That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the
chief danger of the time.”
