[xyzwave]

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

[yesenadam]

I think he's referring to misunderstanding their message, which is...orthogonal to understanding them as people or not.

Related: The entire introduction to the first edition of GK Chesterton's book on his friend George Bernard Shaw (1909): “Most people say that they agree with Bernard Shaw or that they do not understand him. I am the only person who understands him, and I do not agree with him.”

https://archive.org/details/georgebernardsha0000unse/page/n9...

[oneoff786]

You seem to have misunderstood Emerson’s usage of the word understood here. No particular irony intended.