smelly tavern with other vacant minds?

Certainly not. You find him at work, and you find him by
himself.

Think how public institutions dwarf the brains and souls of
unhappy children condemned to live in them. No chance there for
individual, separate development. Millions of children have
grown up in such places millions of sad nonentities. ----

Here is what Goethe says:

"Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille, doch ein Charakter in
dem Strome der Welt." (Talent is developed in solitude, character
in the rush of the world.)

You wonder why so much ability comes from the country--why a
Lincoln comes from the backwoods while you, flourishing in a
great city, can barely keep your place as a typewriter.

The countryman has GOT to be by himself much of the time whether
he wishes to or not. If he has anything in him it comes out.

Astronomy, man's grandest study, grew up among the shepherds.
You of the cities never even see the stars, much less study them.

----

Don't be a sheep or a deer. Don't devote your hours to the
company and conversation of those who know as little as you do.