text: do you know the hallmark of a second rater it s resentment of another man s achievement those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone s work prove greater than their own they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top the loneliness for an equal for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire they bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them while you d give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them they envy achievement and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors they don t know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear they have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors hatred no not hatred but boredom the terrible hopeless draining paralyzing boredom of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don t respect have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire for something not to look down at but up to