Quotes About Genius

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would have never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.

for I have learned, by my own experience, that all extraordinary men, who have accomplished great and astonishing actions, have ever been decried by the world as drunken or insane.

The harnessing to a rational pursuit of the immense psychic energies derived from an irrational obsession seems to be another secret of genius, at least of genius of a certain type.

Genius is sorrow's child.

Yet when an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learnt assumptions about art. Assumptions concerning: Beauty Truth Genius Civilization Form Status Taste, etc.

philosophers are premature ejaculators who decant too soon, spilling their seminal genius to no effect.

Literature is an investment of genius which has dividends to all subsequent times.

Dickens' hypocrites are the prime beneficiaries of his inventive genius. The heroes and heroines have no imagination. We could scrap all the solemn parts of his novels without impairing his status as a writer. But we could not remove Mrs. Gamp or Pecksniff or Bounderby without maiming him irreparably.

Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.

There is no genius. There is only the work. There is no art. There is only the craft.

There is no doubt of course that poverty develops much that is precious in life, not talent or genius alone, but valuable qualities of character. But it does vastly more harm than good. Whenever a man succeeds in spite of poverty we recognize the wonder and eagerly give it acclaim. But the failures resulting from poverty we pass over. Indeed, they are so common as to be almost uninteresting. We speak of them by the bulk.

Genius must be born, and never can be taught.

Great wits are to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide.

Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide.

I gave my genius to my life, but my talent to my art.

All roads for me lead back to Mozart. In his tragically short life, he breathed new life, fire and meaning into every form of music that existed in his time.

We are assumed to be rather hopeless - swallowed up by incorrect notions, divorced from the original genius with which we are born, lost within days of living this distracting life.

The daily life of a genius, his sleep, his digestion, he ecstasies, his nails, his colds, his blood, his life and death are essentially different from the rest of mankind.

A friendship formed in childhood, in youth,--by happy accident at any stage of rising manhood,--becomes the genius that rules the rest of life.

Originality is genius. If you respect and care for it, it will take you on the ride of your life.

It's your life story if you're a mathematician: every time you discover something neat, you discover that Gauss or Newton knew it in his crib.

There is a great gulf between the really creative person and normal people. The totally creative person does not have the rest of his life in proper proportion.

Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects.

Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.