Max Weber on "Science as a vocation":
"If the young scholar asks for my advice with regard to habilitation
[academic tenure], the responsibility of encouraging him can hardly be
borne. If he is a Jew, of course one says lasciate ogni
speranza [abandon all hope - Dante]. But one must ask every other
man: Do you in all conscience believe that you can stand seeing
mediocrity after mediocrity, year after year, climb beyond you, without
becoming embittered and without coming to grief? Naturally, one always
receives the answer: 'Of course, I live only for my "calling." ' Yet, I
have found that only a few men could endure this situation without
coming to grief. "
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~oded/X/WeberScienceVocation.pdf
The Google+ URL for this post was
https://plus.google.com/+MatthewBrett/posts/jpDaqw9KT3f