Quotes About Genius

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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.

And human instinct is ancient and reliable, utterly mysterious and possibly capable of great genius. I believe that refined, fluent instincts are a person's most valuable asset. My own instincts have repeatedly guided me against the grain of logic and probability. When I have trusted and followed their direction, they have never been wrong. I don't know how or why. But I know that every significant experience-positive or negative-sharpens them and makes them more accurate.

Genius is an exaggeration of dimension. So is elephantiasis. Both may be only a disease.

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.

The unrecognized genius—that's an old story. Have you ever thought of a much worse one—the genius recognized too well? ... That a great many men are poor fools who can't see the best—that's nothing. One can't get angry at that. But do you understand about the men who see it and don't want it?

He felt something dark and leering in the manner with which people spoke of Prescott's genius; as if they were not doing homage to Prescott, but spitting upon genius. For once, Keating could not follow people; it was too clear, even to him, that public favor had ceased being a recognition of merit, that it had become almost a brand of shame.

The unrecognized genius-that's one old story. Have you ever thought of a much worse one-the genius recognized too well?

The Franklin known to the French, the Franklin who had briefly visited Paris in 1767 and 1769 was—in Voltaire's description—the discoverer of electricity, a man of genius, a first name in science, a successor to Newton and Galileo.

His sympathies lay with the man in the street, to whom he believed government answered. A friend distilled his politics to two maxims: "Rulers should have little, the people much." And privilege should make way for genius and industry.

As one whose genius has been duly certified by several dozen learned biographers, I think I may say a word or two on the topic of intellectual summits; which is simply that clarity of thought is a shining point in a vast expanse of unrelieved darkness. Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom, and its typical cowardice is to bathe in its own glow and avoid, as much as possible, looking out beyond its boundary.

he could come up with a better idea than anything proposed by all the scientists, the cyberneticians and strategists, with all their computers?

The shame of a genius may be his intellectual futility, the knowledge of how uncertain is all that he has accomplished. And genius is, above all, constant doubting.

Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom, and its typical cowardice is to bathe in its own glow and avoid, as much as possible, looking out beyond its boundary.

Son dignos de compasión esos genios abortados, titanes de espíritu enano, mutilados desde el nacimiento por la naturaleza, que, en una de sus bromas siniestras, les impuso a la vez la falta de talento y el empeño de crear digno de un Leonardo; lo que la vida les trae es la indiferencia o la burla, y lo único que se puede hacer por ellos es escucharles con paciencia y fingir que su monomanía nos interesa.

Am I living fully right now? Am I bringing forth everything I can bring forth? Am I digging down into that ineffable inner treasure-house that I know is in there? That trove of genius? Am I living my life's calling? Am I willing to go to any lengths to offer my genius to the world?

I have Van Gogh's ear for music

When a book was published entitled 100 Authors Against Einstein, he retorted, "If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!

I'm the archetype of a disabled genius, or should I say a physically challenged genius, to be politically correct. At least I'm obviously physically challenged. Whether I'm a genius is more open to doubt.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

greatly increases the chances of finding and inspiring the new Einstein. Wherever she might be.

Genius has as many components as the mind itself.

A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I'll take A Midsummer Night's Dream over Hamlet every time. Any fool with steady hands and a working set of lungs can build up a house of cards and then blow it down, but it takes a genius to make people laugh.