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Genius Quotes

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Genius Quotes

“If deceiving the eye were the only business of the art... the minute painter would be more apt to succeed. But it is not the eye, it is the mind which the painter of genius desires to address.”

IfsMindArtWould BeEyeDesireMinutesGeniusSucceedPainterDeceptionAddressesDeceiving
Book:The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds: Containing His Discourses, Idlers, A Journey to Flanders and Holland, and His Commentary on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Edward Malone
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“In 1838, Mirabeau B. Lamar, the Second President of the Republic of Texas and the Father of Texas education, declared: 'The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. It is the only dictator that free man acknowledges. It is the only security that free man desires.'”

MenMindDesireFatherPresidentEducationDemocracySecurityGeniusAcknowledgeRepublicTexasDictatorGuardianFree Man
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
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“The psychical condition of men's minds may be compared with a set of bells close together, and so arranged that in the ordinary man a bell rings only when one beside it sounds, and the vibration lasts only a moment. In the genius, when a bell sounds it vibrates so strongly that it sets in action the whole series, and remains in action throughout life. The latter kind of movement often gives rise to extraordinary conditions and absurd impulses, that may last for weeks together and that form the basis of the supposed kinship of genius with insanity.”

MenGivingMindKindMayWholeMomentsActionTogetherLastsFormSoundWeekConditionsMovementGeniusOrdinaryBasesRemainsSeriesExtraordinaryRingsAbsurdImpulseInsanityLatterBellsVibrationsKinshipOrdinary ManVibrate
Author:Otto Weininger
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“Thus the brave and aspiring life of one man lights a flame in the minds of others of like faculties and impulse; and where there is equally vigorous effort, like distinction and success will almost surely follow. Thus the chain of example is carried down through time in an endless succession of links--admiration exciting imitation, and perpetuating the true aristocracy of genius.”

MenMindLightEffortExampleGeniusExcitingBraveEndlessChainsImpulseFlamesDistinctionFacultyAdmirationOne ManLinksImitationSuccessionVigorousAristocracyRough TimesPerpetuating
Book:Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct
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“Nothing is so much coveted by a young man as the reputation of being a genius; and many seem to feel that the want of patience for laborious application and deep research is such a mark of genius as cannot be mistaken: while a real genius, like Sir Isaac Newton, with great modesty says, that the great and only difference between his mind and the minds of others consisted solely in his having more patience.”

MenWantFeelsMindRealSeemsYoungDifferencesGeniusResearchMarkReputationYoung ManApplicationModestyMistakenNewtonIsaacReal Genius
Book:The student's manual: designed
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“Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have flourished their allotted time; otherwise, the creative powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of literature.”

WorldWritingMindWould BeLiteratureLanguageCreativeGeniusEndlessFadesVaryFade AwayMazesBewilderedCreative Power
Book:The Complete Works of Washington Irving: Short Stories, Plays, Historical Works, Poetry and Autobiographical Writings (Illustrated): The Entire Opus of the Prolific American Writer, Biographer and Historian, Including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Bracebridge Hall and many more
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“It is not difficult to grasp and express thoughts that float on the stream of current opinion: but to think and rightly utter what is permanently true and interesting, what shall appeal to the best minds a thousand years hence, as it appeals to them to-day, this is the work of genius.”

ThinkingYearsMindDifficultInterestingOpinionGeniusThousandCurrentsAppealsStreamsThousand YearsFloats
Book:Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion
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“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
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“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.”

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Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume II: Within a Budding Grove (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.”

WritingMindHumansMayReasonSufferingFoundVirtueProduceGeniusEvidencePerformancesCuriosityAppearanceFollyHuman MindManifestTemptedRepentInfirmityInconsistency
Book:Selected poetry and prose
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“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
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“There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.”

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Book:The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt
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“I would confide to you perhaps my secret profession of faith - which is ... which is ... that let us say and do what we please and can ... there is a natural inferiority of mind in women - of the intellect ... not by any means, of the moral nature - and that the history of Art and of genius testifies to this fact openly.”

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Book:The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 1845-1846
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“From numberless books the fluttering reader, idle and inconstant, bears away the bloom that only clings to the outer leaf; but genius has its nectaries, delicate glands, and secrecies of sweetness, and upon these the thoughtful mind must settle in its labor, before the choice perfume of fancy and wisdom is drawn forth.”

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Book:Pleasures of Literature
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“As a great democratic society, we have a special responsibility to the arts. For art is the great democrat, calling forth creative genius from every sector of society, disregarding race or religion or wealth or color. What freedom alone can bring is the liberation of the human mind and a spirit which finds its greatest flowering in the free society. I see of little more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than the full recognition of the place of the artist.”

MindHumansLittlesArtCountrySpiritArtistWealthRaceResponsibilityMusicCreativeSpecialColorGeniusCallingCivilizationArt IsImportanceDemocraticDemocratOur CountryRecognitionLiberationHuman MindFree SocietyDemocratic SocietyFloweringCreative Genius
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“The liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man would venture to write on any subject, however, pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the fear of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason.”

MenWritingMindHumansReasonWould BeLawPurposeSoundLibertyIssuesSubjectsMediaCrimeGeniusPureSpeechEmptyConstitutionPressesPunishmentEmpiresVenturePersecutionAttorneyElbowsHuman Reason
Author:Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
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“All preceptors should have that kind of genius described by Tacitus, "equal to their business, but not above it;" a patient industry, with competent erudition; a mind depending more on its correctness than its originality, and on its memory rather than on its invention.”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“The love of retirement has in all ages adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed everything generally supposed to confer happiness have been forced to seek it in the shades of privacy.”

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Book:The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius
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“The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages.”

YearsMindHas BeensMightAgeReligiousHistoryRegretGeniusSucceedEmptyPrejudiceTwentiesLibraryAncientAppearanceExcitedValuableDestroyedInstructionCompositionShelvesAmusementSpectatorsWrecksIdolatryRoman EmpireIndignationAlexandriaReligious Prejudice
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“As eternity is longer than time, as mind is stronger than matter, as thought is swifter than the wind, as genius is more potent than gold, so will the results of well-directed labors toward the development of man's higher faculties ever outweigh a thousand fold any estimate in the currency of commerce, which man can put upon such efforts.”

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Author:Edward Miner Gallaudet
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“This surface good-nature which captivates a new acquaintance and is no bar to treachery, which knows no scruple and is never at fault for an excuse, which makes an outcry at the wound which it condones, is one of the most distinctive features of the journalist. This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.”

KnowsMindWorkMoralPrideGeniusFaultsDeedsExcuseSurfaceWoundsBarsJournalistFeaturesCowardiceStrokesAcquaintanceSanctionsGermsDistinctiveRustTreacheryCamaraderieScruplesGood NatureNew Acquaintances
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“The most delicate beauty in the mind of women is, and ever must be, an independence of artificial stimulants for content. It is not so with men. The links that bind men to capitals belong to the golden chain of civilization,--the chain which fastens all our destinies to the throne of Jove. And hence the larger proportion of men in whom genius is pre-eminent have preferred to live in cities, though some of them have bequeathed to us the loveliest pictures of the rural scenes in which they declined to dwell.”

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Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
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“Emulation, even in brutes, is sensitively "nervous." See the tremor of the thoroughbred racer before he starts. The dray-horse does not tremble, but he does not emulate. It is not his work to run a race. Says Marcus Antoninus, "It is all one to a stone whether it be thrown upward or downward." Yet the emulation of a man of genius is seldom with his contemporaries, that is, inwardly in his mind, although outwardly in his act it would seem so. The competitors with whom his secret ambition seems to vie are the dead.”

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Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
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“Superficial knowledge ... is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.”

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Author:Luc de Clapiers
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“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
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