Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 8.
“In life, you need either inspiration or desperation.”
“Genius is 'the inspired gift of God.”
It is the clearer presence of God Most High in a man. Dim, potential in all men; in this man it has become clear, actual.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
“Genius inspires resentment. A sad fact of life.”
Source: The Time Paradox
“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
Spoken statement (c. 1903); published in Harper's Monthly (September 1932).
Variants:
None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Statement in a press conference (1929), as quoted in Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel & Charles Lindbergh (1987) by James D. Newton, p. 24.
Variant forms without early citation: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."
"Genius: one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
1900s
Variant: Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety nine perspiration.
“That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.”
Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin
Hughey, Aaron W. (book reviewer), "Book review: ‘Quiet’ suggests introverts are undervalued by society," The Daily News (Kentucky; BGDailyNews.com), July 15, 2012.
“Genius is a power of the soul and that powers of the soul can be developed by everyone.”
Source: "Quotes", Notebooks and Lectures on the Bible and Other Religious Texts (2003), p. 8
“Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.”
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), Rousseau and the Sentimentalists
