Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Composer
The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
—Buddhist Teaching
As it must not, so genius cannot be lawless; for it is even that constitutes its genius—the power of acting creatively under laws of its own origination.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason and imagination, rarely or never.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Genius is only a superior power of seeing.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
There is a genius in every man and woman, waiting to be brought forth.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Genius is eternal patience.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
If there is anything that can be called genius, it consists chiefly in the ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind, till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides.
—Thomas Reid (1710–96) Scottish Philosopher, Clergyman
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man’s physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
The first and last thing required of genius is, love of the truth.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Genius is childhood recalled at will.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
I really cannot know whether I am or am not the Genius you are pleased to call me, but I am very willing to put up with the mistake, if it be one. It is a title dearly enough bought by most men, to render it endurable, even when not quite clearly made out, which it never can be till the Posterity, whose decisions are merely dreams to ourselves, has sanctioned or denied it, while it can touch us no further.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
He was a genius – that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Unpretending mediocrity is good, and genius is glorious; but a weak flavor of genius in an essentially common person is detestable. It spoils the grand neutrality of a commonplace character, as the rinsings of an unwashed wineglass spoil a draught of fair water.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Rising genius always shoots out its rays from among the clouds, but these will gradually roll away and disappear as it ascends to its steady luster.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.
—Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) British Essayist, Caricaturist, Novelist
When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Genius is Omniscience flowing into man.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Genius, when young, is divine.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
The lamp of genius burns quicker than the lamp of life.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Who in the same given time can produce more than others has vigor; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet