Quotes About Genius

The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure.

Courage is the genius behind victory.

Flawed genius is better than flawless talent.

Geniuses' steps take you higher than talent's leaps.

Mediocrity is your enemy, satisfactory is your acquaintance, excellence is your friend, and genius is your soulmate.

William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest writer of all time. He has a mediocre 3.7 average on Goodreads.

Humans, as a rule, don't like mad people unless they are good at painting, and only then once they are dead.

Total fame was when you reached the point where looking like a hero, or genius, or god, required minimal effort. But the flipside was that it was precarious. It could be equally easy to fall and look like a devil or a villain, or just an arse.

This, it seemed, was power. The power of fame. Like those pop icons she had seen on social media, who could say a single word and get a million likes and shares. Total fame was when you reached the point where looking like a hero, or genius, or god, required minimal effort.

Total fame was when you reached the point where looking like a hero, or genius, or god, required minimal effort.

One initial proposal I wanted to put to them was to swap things over. For instance, have five fun days and two not-fun days. That way – call me a mathematical genius – they would have more fun.

Of course a certain number of scientists have to go mad, just to keep the tradition alive.

For the creation of a masterwork of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the moment.

For what wears out the life of mortal men? 'Tis that from change to change their being rolls: 'Tis that repeated shocks, again, again, Exhaust the energy of the strongest souls, And numb the elastic powers. Till having us'd our nerves with bliss and teen, And tir'd upon a thousand schemes our wit, To the just-pausing Genius we remit Our worn out life, and are -- what we have been. - The Scholar Gipsy

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

it doesn't necessarily take genius to spend resources . . . it does, though, to work within the resource constraints you're given.

Genius. Part Dickensian, part modern. Incisive, outlandish and hilarious. There's a brilliance in The Gay Street Chronicles.

He had been studying the writings of some local alchemists, he said, but remained baffled by their bizarre symbols and opaque texts. So, he composed a parody of their efforts, making incomprehensible claims by means of unintelligible symbols, and forwarded it to the president of the society. The president, apparently understanding the paper not at all, drew the obvious conclusion that its author was a genius.

In the world which we know, among the different and primitive geniuses that preside over the evolution of the several species, there exists not one, excepting that of the dog, that ever gave a thought to the presence of man.

Observamos aquí, una vez más, que todo el genio reside en la especie, la vida o la naturaleza; y que el individuo es más o menos estúpido. Sólo en el hombre hay emulación real entre las dos inteligencias, tendencia cada vez más precisa, cada vez más activa a una especie de equilibrio que es el gran secreto de nuestro porvenir.

You shall not find, in nature's immense crucible, a single living being that has shown a like suppleness, a similar abundance of forms, the same prodigious faculty of accommodation to our wishes. This is because, in the world which we know, among the different and primitive geniuses that preside over the evolution of the several species, there exists not one, excepting that of the dog, that ever gave a thought to the presence of man.

Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.

Einstein would be one of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time even if he had not written a single line on relativity.

When the government designates as punishable all play of mind against the state, the moderate liberals come and opine that fun, satire, wit, humor, etc., must have free play anyhow, and genius must enjoy freedom. So not the individual man indeed, but still genius , is to be free. Here the state, or in its name the government, says with perfect right: He who is not for me is against me.