Leadership Quote by William Henry Moody

A politician praising proximity to genius is rarely offering a purely aesthetic compliment; its a survival strategy dressed up as self-improvement. "It is always well to get near to men of genius" flatters the extraordinary while quietly coaching the ordinary on how power actually circulates: through adjacency. Moody frames genius not as something you cultivate in solitude but as something you can borrow by standing close enough to it, like heat from a fire. The phrase "always well" is the tell. Its not rapturous; its managerial. Genius becomes an asset class.

The subtext is transactional, even if politely so. Get near, and you gain reflected authority, better judgment, sharper language, a whiff of inevitability. In a political world, where persuasion often outruns proof, association can function as credential. Moody isnt saying "become a genius"; hes saying "attach yourself to one". The sentence is also a soft instruction to the talented: accept the entourage, because your presence improves the room and makes alliances look enlightened.

Context matters. Late-19th and early-20th century public life in Britain and America was thick with the cult of the "great man": inventors, writers, reformers, captains of industry. Politics was increasingly professional, but still hungry for moral and intellectual cover. Moody's line reads like advice for navigating that ecosystem: seek out people who think faster than the rest, not only to learn, but to signal that you belong in the future they are supposedly inventing.

Its a compliment with an angle: admiration as networking.