Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.

The line expresses a familiar pattern in intellectual and cultural history: genuinely novel ideas threaten established reputations, habits, and institutions, so they can provoke hostility—especially from those whose status depends on prevailing orthodoxies. By contrasting “great ideas” with “mediocre minds,” the saying frames opposition not as a reliable test of truth but as a sociological reflex: insecurity and conformity can masquerade as principled critique. Read charitably, it encourages innovators to expect resistance and to distinguish substantive criticism from defensive backlash. Read critically, it can also be misused to dismiss legitimate objections by labeling critics as “mediocre.”