Max Planck, J.B.S. Haldane, William James, and Leo Tolstoy give comfort to people who have ideas that are not taken seriously

Planck’s Principle: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." Or, to paraphrase, "Science advances funeral by funeral."

"Theories have four stages of acceptance: 

1) this is worthless nonsense; 

2) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view;

3) this is true, but quite unimportant;

4) I always said so.”

— J.B.S. Haldane

"...By far the most usual way of handling phenomena so novel that they would make for a serious rearrangement of our preconceptions is to ignore them altogether, or to abuse those who bear witness for them."

— from William James’s “Pragmatism”

"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." — from Leo Tolstoy’s “What is Art and Essays on Art”