reflections on smart, attractive people

When handsome men or beautiful women take up the work of the intellect, it impresses us because we know they could have chosen other paths to being impressive; that they chose the path of the mind suggests that there is something more worthwhile than a circuitous route to the good things that the good-looking get just by showing up.



Adam Gopnik, "Facing History: Why we Love Camus," New Yorker, April 9, 2012

(For the record: In my travels, I have met many people who are both gorgeous and smart. Some of them are even my friends. But I did find this assertion by Gopnik in a truly fine essay about Camus to be, well, I think the term is bold.)