Adams used this statement in a letter to Benjamin Waterhouse (21 May 1821), but he may have been quoting the poem "To Mr. Stuart, On his Portrait of Mrs. M" by Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, first published in 1803:
: Genius is sorrow's child — to want allied —
Consoled by glory, and sustained by pride.
Misattributed
“Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.”
Wirklich ist jedes Kind gewissermaßen ein Genie, und jedes Genie gewissermaßen ein Kind.
Bd. 2, § 3.31, p. 451
The World as Will and Representation (1819; 1844; 1859)
Original
Wirklich ist jedes Kind gewissermaßen ein Genie, und jedes Genie gewissermaßen ein Kind.
The World as Will and Representation (1819; 1844; 1859)
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Arthur Schopenhauer 261
German philosopher 1788–1860Related quotes
“There is an adult in every child and a child in every adult.”
Source: The Moral Judgment of the Child (1932), Ch. 1 : The Rules of the Game, § 8 : Conclusions : Motor Rules and the Two Kinds of Respect <!-- p. 85 -->
Context: In certain circumstances where he experiments in new types of conduct by cooperating with his equals, the child is already an adult. There is an adult in every child and a child in every adult. … There exist in the child certain attitudes and beliefs which intellectual development will more and more tend to eliminate: there are others which will acquire more and more importance. The later are not derived from the former but are partly antagonistic to them.
Variant: The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.
“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.”
"Foreword", p. 3.
Strong Opinions (1973)
“Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.”
Solitude.
Curiosities of Literature (1791–1834)
“Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.”
Isaac D'Israeli, The Curiosities of Literature, "Solitude".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
“…every human being has an amount of genius in them.”
Source: Om Malik, Interview with Brunello Cucinelli http://pi.co/brunello-cucinelli-2/ 2015/04/27
“Every man is a potential genius until he does something.”
Page 110.
Beerbohm Tree (1956)
The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century