“A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happens to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately.”

“Genius is play, and man's capacity for achieving genius is infinite, and many may achieve genius only through play.”

“Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.”

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

“Every man is a potential genius until he does something.”

“I object to being called a chess genius because I consider myself to be an all around genius who just happens to play chess, which is rather different. A piece of garbage like Kasparov might be called a chess genius, but he's like an idiot savant. Outside of chess he knows nothing.”

“Genius doth catch the music of the spheres,
Which mortal ear was never meant to know.
Genius can penetrate the mysteries
Of feeling, all unknown to other hearts;
A power hath entered in the inmost soul,
Whose presence may not be contained.”

“Stand aside, and try not to catch fire if I shed sparks of genius.”

“The great man of science, unless he is also a philosopher, … deserves the title of genius as little as the man of action.”

“Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.”