"“Are you smart?” There was no non-embarrassing answer to this. “I guess.” “Don’t worry about it, everybody here is. If they even brought you in for the Exam you were the smartest person in your school, teachers included. Everyone here was the cleverest little monkey in his or her particular tree. Except now we’re all in one tree together. It can be a shock. Not enough coconuts to go round. You’ll be dealing with your equals for the first time in your life, and your betters. You won’t like it.”"
Lev Grossman

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Original Language: English

Sources

Chapter 3, “Eliot” (p. 44)

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lev_Grossman