Most of us are so bounteously endowed with intellect as to require also a spice of genius to choose the right form of behaviour. And genius is lacking in us for the reason that so little genius at all exists.
 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gambler (1866). copy citation

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Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Source The Gambler
Topic genius reason
Date 1866
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by C. J. Hogarth
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2197/2197-h/2197-h.htm

Context

“By that I mean that, though I am a man of self-respect, I am unable to carry off a situation properly. Do you know the reason? It is because we Russians are too richly and multifariously gifted to be able at once to find the proper mode of expression. It is all a question of mode. Most of us are so bounteously endowed with intellect as to require also a spice of genius to choose the right form of behaviour. And genius is lacking in us for the reason that so little genius at all exists. It belongs only to the French—though a few other Europeans have elaborated their forms so well as to be able to figure with extreme dignity, and yet be wholly undignified persons. That is why, with us, the mode is so all-important.” source