Quotessence
Home / Topics / Genius Quotes

Genius Quotes

Browse 3909 quotes about Genius.

Related topics

MenIfsPeopleThinkingTalentWorldArtKnowsMindMayHumansWritingDoeWayWellsGivingFirstsIdeasKindHas BeensScienceShouldPersonsInspirationalWantChildrenCreativeNeedsArtistBookAgeAbilityBelieveCharacterLittlesMeanTrue GeniusFactsSoulTwoCommonHe ManMadeMightRealSaidYearsUseLiteratureTalent And GeniusFeelsHeartDifferentStillsInspirationSometimesCreativityFoolFormIndividualPlaySpiritBornCreative GeniusLooksQualityReasonCapacityCertainGuyHandsWholeBrainFineHardMatterDoneMediocrityTryingGreaterLightWould BeAbleDreamMadnessWitEnoughMomentsNaturalSeemsStudyLanguageLongAmericaBeautifulBrilliantGreatnessSelfSimpleTastemore

Genius Quotes

“There is a certain race of men that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception of every work of learning or genius, who stand as sentinels in the avenues of fame, and value themselves upon giving Ignorance and Envy the first notice of a prey.”

MenGivingFirstsCertainValuesRaceImagineIgnoranceDutyGeniusFameCriticsEnvyAmusementPreyAvenuesHinderReceptionSentinels
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
Create image

“God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.”

WantFirstsMadeGodLawSkyGeniusLimitsEternityMeasurementGod And Nature
Book:The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, Vol. X: Africa for the Africans, 1923–1945
Create image

“I think a good deal may be said to extenuate the fault of bad Poets. What we call a Genius, is hard to be distinguish'd by a man himself, from a strong inclination: and if his genius be ever so great, he can not at first discover it any other way, than by giving way to that prevalent propensity which renders him the more liable to be mistaken.”

IfsThinkingMenWayGivingFirstsMaySaidHardStrongDealsPoetGeniusFaultsMistakenCan NotInclinationLiablePropensityGiving Way
Book:Poems: Pastoral poetry, and An essay on criticism
Create image

“If children had teachers for judgment and eloquence just as they have for languages, if their memory was exercised less than their energy or their natural genius, if instead of deadening their vivacity of mind we tried to elevate the free scope and impulse of their souls, what might not result from a fine disposition? As it is, we forget that courage, or love of truth and glory are the virtues that matter most in youth; and our one endeavour is to subdue our children's spirits, in order to teach them that dependence and suppleness are the first laws of success in life.”

IfsMindFirstsChildrenSoulMatterMightLawSpiritOrderEnergyLanguageNaturalMemoriesForgetResultsTeachVirtueTeacherYouthFineGeniusJudgmentGloryOur ChildrenImpulseSuccess In LifeDependenceDispositionScopeEloquenceEndeavourVivacity
Author:Luc de Clapiers
Create image

“The reason why a work of genius is not easily admired from the first is that the man who has created it is extraordinary, that few other men resemble him. It is his work itself that, by fertilising the rare minds capable of understanding it, will make them increase and multiply.”

MenMindFirstsReasonUnderstandingHe ManGeniusCapableIncreaseExtraordinaryReason Why
Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume II: Within a Budding Grove (A Modern Library E-Book)
Create image

“To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the first summons; but such happiness, the greatest genius does not always obtain; and common writers know it only to such a degree, as to credit its possibility. Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.”

KnowsWritingMindFirstsDoeIdeasMomentsCommonEffortAttentionPossibilityProduceExpressionGeniusDegreesPerseveranceStartingCreditEmploymentResolutionSentimentsSteadyCompositionDelightfulAmusementDiligence
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Adventurer and Idler
Create image

“High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it.”

FirstsLinesGeniusTasteHighestAppreciateOriginalsAppearanceCommandReputationRecognition
Book:Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life, 1795-1835
Create image

“The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge--conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him.”

MenFirstsChildrenHas BeensSaidWholeEyeForceDifferencesWonderCreativeSeeingIgnoranceGeniusThousandOceanEternalConsciousInfiniteRemainsMeetingsDelightVisibleAdmirationPerpetualFountainInfinite PowerEyes Of A Child
Book:The Stones of Venice
Create image

“In the first seat, in robe of various dyes, A noble wildness flashing from his eyes, Sat Shakespeare: in one hand a wand he bore, For mighty wonders fam'd in days of yore: The other held a globe, which to his will Obedient turn'd, and own'd the master's skill: Things of the noblest kind his genius drew, And look'd through nature at a single view: A loose he gave to his unbounded soul, And taught new lands to rise, new seas to roll; Call'd into being scenes unknown before, And passing nature's bounds, was something more.”

FirstsLooksKindSoulHandsEyeTurnsViewsWonderSeaLandTaughtMastersGeniusSceneSkillsBoundsVariousNoblePassingPassingsSatHis EyesSeatsBoresGlobesObedientRobesWildnessWands
Book:Poems
Create image

“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can assume great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became “geniuses” (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.”

MenFirstsWellsKindLittlesWholePleasureQualityEffectsTalentFashionGreatnessGeniusAssumingAll KindsGreat MenEfficientPossessedGiftedVentureConstructsBoastSeriousnessDazzlingWorkmenGiftedness
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
Create image

“I don't like that word 'discovery.' ... Sinatra was the first one to call Ray Charles a genius, he spoke of 'the genius of Ray Charles.' And after that everybody called him a genius. They didn't call him a genius before that though. He was a genius but they didn't call him that. ... If a white man hadn't told them, they wouldn't've seen it. ... Like, you know, they say Columbus discovered America, he didn't discover America.”

IfsKnowsMenFirstsAmericaWhiteLike YouGeniusRacismDiscoverySpokesRaysWhite ManColumbus
Author:Gayl Jones
Create image

“Of all the arts poetry (which owes its origin almost entirely to genius and will least be guided by precept or example) maintains the first rank.”

FirstsArtPoetryExampleGenius
Book:The Critique of Judgment: Theory of the Aesthetic Judgment and Theory of the Teleological Judgment: Critique of the Power of Judgment from the Author of Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals & Dreams of a Spirit-Seer
Create image

“The good diarist writes either for himself alone or for a posterity so distant that it can safely hear every secret and justly weigh every motive. For such an audience there is need neither of affectation nor of restraint. Sincerity is what they ask, detail, and volume; skill with the pen comes in conveniently, but brilliance is not necessary; genius is a hindrance even; and should you know your business and do it manfully, posterity will let you off mixing with great men, reporting famous affairs, or having lain with the first ladies in the land.”

KnowsMenNeedsShouldWritingFirstsAsksSecretAudienceLandGeniusSkillsAffairDetailsMotiveGreat MenPensSincerityVolumeRestraintDiariesPosterityBrillianceMixingHindranceFirst Lady
Book:Collected essays
Create image

“No convention gets to be a convention at all except by grace of a lot of clever and powerful people first inventing it, and then imposing it on others. You can be pretty sure, if you are strictly conventional, that you are following genius--a long way off. And unless you are a genius yourself, that is a good thing to do.”

PeopleIfsWayFirstsLongPowerfulGraceGeniusGood ThingsFollowingCleverThings To DoConventionsConventionalLong WayInventingImposingConventionality
Book:Modes and Morals
Create image

“As long as the artist invents and is inspired, he remains in a constrained state of mind, at least for the purpose of communication. He then wants to say everything, which is the wrong tendency of young geniuses or the right prejudice of old bunglers. Thus, he fails to recognize the value and dignity of self-restraint, which is indeed for both the artist and the man the first and the last, the most necessary and the highest goal.”

MenWantMindFirstsLongSelfStatesLastsYoungPurposeArtistValuesGoalFailingHe ManCommunicationGeniusHighestDignityPrejudiceRemainsInspiredTendenciesState Of MindRestraintSelf Restraint
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Create image

“Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation. Twenty millions in the temperate zone, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, full of vigor, industry, inventive genius, educated, and moral; increasing by immigration rapidly, and, above all, free--all free--will form a confederacy of twenty States scarcely inferior in real power to the unfortunate Union of thirty-three States which we had on the first of November.”

IfsFirstsWarRealStatesHandsFormThreePoliticsNationsMoralMillionsGoes OnIndustryGeniusTwentiesSlaveryUnionsImmigrationEducatedCompromiseThirtyCivil WarGloriousZoneFree WillUnfortunateInferiorsNovemberStretchingPacificVigorReal PowerFree State
Book:Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes (Abridged)
Create image

“The first job I ever did in the theatre, I was supposed to be a genius piano player. I couldn't play the piano, but you just sit there at a piano like you're playing, and suddenly all this amazing music comes out and the audience believes you can do it. It's the same with computers. I love scenes where there are people yanking at monitors, "yes I'll put you through now," and you know they're just doing that. But you can look brilliant at all this technology. I love it.”

PeopleKnowsFirstsBelieveLooksPlayJobsCan DoTechnologyAudiencePlayerLike YouGeniusSceneComputerTheatreBrilliantSupposed To BePianoYou Can Do ItBelieve You CanAmazing Music
Author:Michael Sheen
Create image

“It is harder to see than it is to express. The whole value of art rests in the artist's ability to see well into what is before him. ... The model will serve equally for a Rembrandt drawing or for anybody's magazine cover. A genius is one who can see. The others can often 'draw' remarkably well. ... Those who get their technique first, expecting sight to come to them later, get a technique of a very ready-made order.”

FirstsWellsArtMadeWholeArtistValuesOrderAbilityReadyGeniusModelsDrawsSightHarderTechniqueDrawingMagazinesExpectingAbility To SeeMagazine Covers
Author:Robert Henri
Create image

“There are probably very few people who have not at some time of their lives had some quality of genius. If they have not had such, it is probable that they have also been without great sorrow or great pain. They would have needed only to live sufficiently intently for a time for some quality to reveal itself. The poems of first love are a case in point, and certainly such love is a sufficient stimulus.”

PeopleIfsFirstsPainLove IsQualityCasesGeniusNeededSorrowSufficientFirst LoveStimulus
Book:Sex & Character
Create image