It is not because the touch of genius has roused genius to production, but because the admiration of genius has made talent ambitious, that the harvest is still so abundant.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Genius is an intellect that has become unfaithful to its destiny.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Genius ain’t anything more than elegant common sense.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Genius is the quality of the special spirit, whether in poetry or politics or science, which raises a man above a single locality or nation to influence the people of the world.
—Cornelis de Kiewiet (1902–86) American Historian, Educator
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
Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.
—Margot Fonteyn (1919–91) British Ballet Dancer
It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Gift, like genius, I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains.
—Ellice Hopkins (1836–1904) British Social Reformer
There is the same difference between talent and genius that there is between a stone mason and a sculptor.
—Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–99) American Lawyer, Orator, Agnostic
The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
Genius is sorrow’s child.
—John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd US President, Founding Father, Statesman
Genius is an African who dreams up snow.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
—Anonymous
No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought, but genius must be born; and never can be taught.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Genius is the ability to act rightly without precedent—the power to do the right thing the first time.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
The kind of intelligence a genius has is a different sort of intelligence. The thinking of a genius does not proceed logically. It leaps with great ellipses. It pulls knowledge from God knows where.
—Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American Journalist, Radio Commentator
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 only a superior power of seeing.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
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