Hi guys, how’s it going? I’m trying to identify the source of a commonly cited quote by Lytton Strachey that goes as follows: “Perhaps the best test of a man’s intelligence is his capacity for making a summary.”

Searching for this serves me countless results from quotes-websites, with no reference to where it was written / said and when. Do any of you know this? I’m beginning to wonder if it really is a genuine quote.

  • So I’ve gotten nowhere for a long time. But as so often happens, just as I ask for help, new ideas start popping into my head. I got a hold of a copy of his collected works and searched for ‘intelligence’ (not a difficult strategy to come up with one would think…). Found it in the essay on Henri Beyle in Books & Characters from 1922. Leaving this up in case there is any interest, but I won’t be offended if someone removes it.