Source: Confessions of a Philosopher (1997), p. 157
Context: As Voltaire once remarked, "It is the privilege of the real genius, especially one who opens up a new path, to make great mistakes with impunity." The Copernican revolution brought about by Kant was, I think, the most important single turning point in the history of philosophy. For that reason there has been, ever since, a watershed in understanding between those who have taken his work on board and those who have not. For a good many of the problems he uncovered, the solutions he put forward have not stood the test of time, but his uncovering of the problems remains the most illuminating thing a philosopher has ever done. Because of the fundamental character of these problems, and because Kant did not solve them, confronting them has been the most important challenge to philosophy ever since.
“It is the privilege of true genius, and certainly of the genius that opens a new road, to make without punishment great mistakes.”
"Siècle de Louis XIV," ch. 32 (1751), qtd. in Arthur Schopenhauer, "The World as Will and Representation," Criticism of the Kantian philosophy (1818)
Citas
Original: (fr) C'est le privilège du vrai génie, et surtout du génie qui ouvre une carrière, de faire impunément de grandes fautes.
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Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778Related quotes
“Improvement makes straight roads; but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.”
Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 66
“The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.”
“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.”
"Of Experiment and of the Genius of Discoveries," p. 37
An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)
Source: The Lightness of Being – Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces (2008), Ch. 1, p. 12.
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
Introduction; Cited in: Stefan Zabieglik. "Adam Smith's political economy in Poland. Review of the problem." Argumenta Oeconomica, 2002, No 2 (13)
Dictionary of political economy, 1818