"I cannot find in Chatterton's works any thing so extraordinary as the age at which they were written. They have a facility, vigour, and knowledge, which were prodigious in a boy of sixteen, but which would not have been so in a boy of twenty. He did not show extraordinary powers of genius, but extraordinary precocity. Nor do I believe he would have written better, had he lived. He knew this himself, or he would have lived. Great geniuses, like great kings, have too much to think of to kill themselves."
React to this quote
More by Thomas Chatterton
See allResonant Thoughts
"But in her striving toward education, woman must remember that all educational systems are only the means for the development of a higher knowledge and culture. The true culture of thought is develope…"
"Should there be danger of such an event — should he be the cause of adding a single more trouble to her existence — why, I think I shall be justified in going to extremes! I wish you had sincerity eno…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"He knows little who will tell his wife all he knows."
— Thomas Fuller"When Elizabeth Blackwell studied medicine and put up her sign in New York, she was regarded as fair game, a…"
— Lucy Stone"It’s a big coincidence. It’s something we can’t explain. But as far as we know that’s all it is. And if it …"
— Ken MacLeod"... we all know mysteries are very fascinating things."
— Letitia Elizabeth Landon"It is this detachment, this use of comparison, his faith in the possibility of applying scientific processe…"
— Lyndall Urwick"During the last few years it has become apparent that the concept of "machine" must be very greatly extende…"
— W. Ross Ashby

