Dylan Meets Archibald MacLeish, Praises Him?

Dylan

In his Chronicles, Volume 1 (Simon and Schuster, 2004), Bob Dylan recalls meeting Archibald MacLeish, who was planning to write a play called Scratch, loosely based on Stephen Vincent Benét's story The Devil and Daniel Webster, and MacLeish wanted Dylan to write the songs.

That didn't work out, but Dylan seemingly came away with a positive impression of the man:

"He possessed more knowledge of mankind and its vagaries than most men acquire in a lifetime." (129)

Sounds like high praise, but is it? Strictly speaking, to be wiser than most people at the end of one's life is only moderate praise.

So what did Dylan mean? I suppose he meant well . . .