Quotes about genius
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“We wish in our country that morality may be substituted for egotism, probity for false honour, principles for usages, duties for good manners, the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, a contempt of vice for a contempt of misfortune, pride for insolence, magnanimity for vanity, the love of glory for the love of money, good people for good company, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for tinsel show, the attractions of happiness for the ennui of sensuality, the grandeur of man for the littleness of the great, a people magnanimous, powerful, happy, for a people amiable, frivolous and miserable; in a word, all the virtues and miracles of a Republic instead of all the vices and absurdities of a Monarchy.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

Love, Money, Happiness, People

“It was the cause of America that made me an author. The force with which it struck my mind and the dangerous condition the country appeared to me in, by courting an impossible and an unnatural reconciliation with those who were determined to reduce her, instead of striking out into the only line that could cement and save her, A Declaration Of Independence, made it impossible for me, feeling as I did, to be silent: and if, in the course of more than seven years, I have rendered her any service, I have likewise added something to the reputation of literature, by freely and disinterestedly employing it in the great cause of mankind, and showing that there may be genius without prostitution. Independence always appeared to me practicable and probable, provided the sentiment of the country could be formed and held to the object: and there is no instance in the world, where a people so extended, and wedded to former habits of thinking, and under such a variety of circumstances, were so instantly and effectually pervaded, by a turn in politics, as in the case of independence; and who supported their opinion, undiminished, through such a succession of good and ill fortune, till they crowned it with success. But as the scenes of war are closed, and every man preparing for home and happier times, I therefore take my leave of the subject. I have most sincerely followed it from beginning to end, and through all its turns and windings: and whatever country I may hereafter be in, I shall always feel an honest pride at the part I have taken and acted, and a gratitude to nature and providence for putting it in my power to be of some use to mankind.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The Crisis No. XIII
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

War, People, World, Feeling

“There is not even a thought, or an invention, which is not common property, born of the past and the present. Thousands of inventors, known and unknown, who have died in poverty, have co-operated in the invention of each of these machines which embody the genius of man.”

Peter Kropotkin book The Conquest of Bread

Source: The Conquest of Bread (1892), Ch. 1 : Our Riches

Past

“My father, Hugh Everett, III, author of the Many Worlds Theory, was a quiet man during the eighteen or so years I shared a house with him. Turns out he was depressed over a sad childhood and then being dismissed as a kook, only later - too late - to be recognized as a genius.”

Hugh Everett (1930–1982) American physicist, author of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics

Mark Oliver Everett, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, ISBN 978-0-316-02787-8, pg 11

World, Sadness, Childhood, Housing

“It is the privilege of true genius, and certainly of the genius that opens a new road, to make without punishment great mistakes.”

Voltaire Le Siècle de Louis XIV

"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.

Making love

“Once plants and animals were raised together on the same farm — which therefore neither produced unmanageable surpluses of manure, to be wasted and to pollute the water supply, nor depended on such quantities of commercial fertilizer. The genius of America farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

The Unsettling of America : Culture & Agriculture (1996), p. 62

Problem, Water, Animals, Dependency

“Perhaps genius alone understands genius fully.”

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) German composer, aesthete and influential music critic

Sometimes translated as: Perhaps only genius fully understands genius

Original: Vielleicht versteht nur der Genius den Genius ganz, Robert Schumann, Advice to Young Musicians, translation of Musikalische Haus- und Lebens-Regeln, translated by Henry Hugo Pierson, Leipsic & New York: J. Schuberth & Co., 1860.

Understanding

“When I was about twelve, I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody's noticed. Either I'm a genius or I'm mad, which is it? "No," I said, "I can't be mad because nobody's put me away; therefore I'm a genius."”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Genius is a form of madness and we're all that way. But I used to be coy about it, like me guitar playing. But if there's such a thing as genius — I am one. And if there isn't, I don't care.
John Lennon interview with Rolling Stone magazine (December 1970)

Thinking, Madness

“Genius is 'the inspired gift of God.”

Thomas Carlyle book Past and Present

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)

God

“To see things in the seed, that is genius.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

“The issue of a battle is the result of an instant, of a thought. There is the advance, with its various combinations, the battle is joined, the struggle goes on a certain time, the decisive moment presents itself, a spark of genius discloses it, and the smallest body of reserves accomplish victory.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Decision, Time, Victory

“One must indeed be ignorant of the methods of genius to suppose that it allows itself to be cramped by forms. Forms are for mediocrity, and it is fortunate that mediocrity can act only according to routine. Ability takes its flight unhindered.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

“If there is a cure to any disease, then why not a formula to become a genius?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Disease

“Genius does not seem to derive any great support from syllogisms. Its carriage is free; its manner has a touch of inspiration. We see it come, but we never see it walk.”

Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821) Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat

"Tenth Dialogue"
St. Petersburg Dialogues (1821)

Support

“There is a great analogy between grace and genius, for genius is a grace. The real man of genius is the one who acts by grace or by impulsion, without ever contemplating himself and without ever saying to himself: Yes! It is by grace that I act.”

Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821) Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat

"Of Experiment and of the Genius of Discoveries," p. 37
An Examination of the Philosophy of Francis Bacon (1836)

“Seem like the more fame, I only got wilder
Hands up, we just doing what the cops taught us
I've been outta my mind a long time
I've been outta my mind a long time
I be saying how I feel at the wrong time
Might not come when you want but I'm on time. Name one genius that ain't crazy.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Feedback
Lyrics, The Life of Pablo (2016)

Feeling, Time

“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Appearance

“One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius; and the feminine situation has up to the present rendered this becoming practically impossible.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Bk. I, Pt. 2, Ch. 8: Since the French Revolution: the Job and the Vote, p. 133
Source: The Second Sex (1949)

“Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

School, Understanding, Solitude, For Men

“Art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Religion, Art, Color, Wealth

“Genius could be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way, or even to say a simple thing in a simpler way.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Variant: Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.
Source: Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook: Uncollected Stories and Essays, 1944-1990

Way

“To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.”

Joyce Cary book The Horse's Mouth

Source: The Horse's Mouth

Wisdom, World, Forgiveness, Heart

“The beginning of genius is being scared shitless.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline (1894–1961) French writer

Source: The Church: A Comedy in Five Acts

“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Context: A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Back To Work

“No man ever followed his genius til it misled him.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“The only genius that's worth anything is the genius for hard work.”

Kathleen Winsor (1919–2003) American author

“Some people think I'm a mythical genius, others think I'm a junkie madman.”

Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

People, Thinking

“His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one's own.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Art, Understanding

“Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Source: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 19
Source: The Writings of William James

Truth, Way

“These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Letter to John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)
Context: These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues.
Context: These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.

Life, Time

“Patience is eternal genius”

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet

Variant: Genius is eternal patience.

Patience

“There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Sense, Clothes, Wise

“The more obscure our tastes, the greater the proof of our genius.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

“Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

Men, Madness

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Variant: The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

Secret, Age, Attitude

“My time I divide as follows: the one half I sleep; the other half I dream. I never dream when I sleep; that would be a shame, because to sleep is the height of genius.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

Dreams, Sleep, Time

“Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.”

Robert Henri (1865–1929) American painter

Nature

“Oh, Blimey O'Riley's pantyhose…. What is the point of Shakespeare? I know he is a genius and so on, but he does rave on. 'What light doth through yonder window break?' It's the bloody moon, for God sake, Will, get a grip!”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Variant: Oh Blimey O‘Reilly's pantyhose... what is the point of Shakespeare? I know he is a genius and so on, but he does rave on. It's the bloody moon, for God's sake, Will, get a grip!!
Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

God, Light

“I did not consider him to be any kind of a genius. I considered him deeply lacking in the area that mattered most in life. Star quality.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Life, Star

“Despair and Genius are too oft connected”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Source: Byron Poems

Despair

“The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation's effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius…”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Effort

“They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

Pain, Smile

“Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead, he was a genius.”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return …”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Source: 1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972), Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973 - 1976 (1978), p. 280

People, Question

“The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

World

“He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Life

“Genius or fool, you don't live in the world alone. You can hide underground or you can build a wall around yourself, but somebody's going to come along and screw up the works.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)

World, Fools

“There's a fine line between criminality and genius."
-Dan Cahill”

Jude Watson book A King's Ransom

Source: A King's Ransom

“When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Source: Abolishing Christianity and Other Essays

World, Appearance

“Some were brilliant bordering on genius. Others, genius bordering on madness”

Erich Segal (1937–2010) American writer

Madness

“A woman may be beautiful but have poor character. A man may be a business genius, making money left and right, but lack common courtesy, sensitivity, and compassion.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Money, Beauty, Business

“A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Genius: the ability to prolong one's childhood.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Childhood

“The Bible makes it clear that every time that there is a story of faith, it is completely original. God's creative genius is endless.”

Eugene H. Peterson (1932–2018) American translator

God, Faith, Time

“That's when I heard the sounds of a certified genius spinning around in circles like a dog chasing its tail.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Dogs

“What is a Gallagher Girl?
She's a genius, a scientist, a heroine, a spy… a Gallagher Girl is whatever she wants to be.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Girl

“Ah, Senor Zhang," Leo said, "you know how you're always saying, 'Leo, you are the only true genius among demigods'?"
"I'm pretty sure I never said that.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“I'm a misunderstood genius."
"What's misunderstood?"
"Nobody thinks I'm a genius.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Thinking

“Which reminded me… I still owed the gods a debt.
"You're a genius," I (Percy) told Annabeth.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

God

“Gazzy: (Hugging himself and jumping up and down) "I'm brilliant! I'm a genius! I can blow up the world!"
Max: (Raises her eyebrows)
Gazzy: "Not that I would want to, of course," (coughs)”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

World

“Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Stupidity

“he's a genius, she's a genius, wow, you know alot of geniuses, you should meet some stupid people sometime, you might learn something”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

People, Stupidity, Learning

“Adrian, you're a genius.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

“Genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Nature

“Genius does not excuse evil.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Evil

“Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones to genius.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Source: The Philosophy of Elbert Hubbard

Effort

“A genius is a genius, regardless of the number of morons who belong to the same race—and a moron is a moron, regardless of the number of geniuses who share his racial origin.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

http://alexpeak.com/twr/racism/
The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)
Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

“Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Context: I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, — and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment.

Men, Heart