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Savants Quotes

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“The labours I devoted between 1888 to 1900 to the critical edition, translation and commentary of Kalhana's Rajatarangini, the only true historical text of Sanskrit literature, afforded me ample opportunities of gaining close contact with Sanskrit savants of Kashmir, the land where traditional learning of Hindu India had flourished in old times greatly and survived until recent years.”

YearsLiteratureOpportunityLandIndiaHistoricalCriticalTraditionalContactLabourDevotedSurvivedTranslationsCommentaryOld TimeKashmirSanskritSavants
Author:Aurel Stein
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“Some people seem to have extreme natural wiring - a talent that seems to come out of nowhere. Like a music savant or prodigy. The uplifting news, though, is that many talented people don't have such natural wiring - but they forge a talent through thousands of hours of what's known as deliberate practice or deliberate performance.”

PeopleSeemsHoursNaturalKnownPracticeTalentNewsPerformancesExtremesUpliftingDeliberateProdigiesWiringSavantsDeliberate Practice
Author:Kevin Maney
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“The ways in which acquired savants show up are usually the same ways that congenital, or non-acquired, savant syndrome shows up. They tend to show up in the same areas: music, art, math, visual, spatial skills, and calendar calculating, although calendar calculating probably isn't quite as prominent in that group. They tend to show up quite quickly, or sort of explode on the scene and they then tend to have an obsessive sort of forceful quality about them in the same way as savant skills. So they tend to show up in the same ways.”

WayArtShowsQualityGroupsSceneSkillsAreasMathVisualsObsessiveCalendarsProminentSyndromesCalculatingSpatialSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“There are people at the extremes who aren't able to do anything musically, and then others sort of fall in the middle. And the same thing with math, and the same thing with art. You'll find people who are geniuses, or prodigies at the far end of the bell shaped curve, and I think you will find some of the acquired savants in that category who happened to have been endowed with that kind of talent, which explains why not everyone becomes an acquired savant.”

PeopleThinkingKindHas BeensArtEndsAbleFallHappenedMiddleTalentGeniusExtremesMathWhy NotCategoriesBellsCurvesProdigiesSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“There are some cases that have come to my attention where there's been a head injury, or getting struck by lightning and surviving, with really no disability or residual. So there are cases that I'm aware of where there's been some incident which triggered the acquired savant ability, but is not associated with long term disability, so that can occur. But I think that's probably the exception rather than the rule in that I think many of the acquired savants do end up with some residual disability.”

ThinkingLongEndsTermAbilityAttentionCasesLong TermInjuryExceptionDisabilityLightningSurvivingIncidentsResidualSavantsHead Injuries
Author:Darold Treffert
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“When I met my first savant in 1962, I was impressed by the abilities in these youngsters who had severe disabilities. They appeared to me to be islands of genius in the sea of disability. So I've maintained that word picture since that time, of these islands of genius that are so striking and so jarring when you see them, especially in people who have severe disability.”

PeopleFirstsAbilitySeaGeniusMetsIslandsDisabilityImpressedSevereYoungstersSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“A savant, by definition, is somebody who has a disability and, along with that disability, has some remarkable ability. Prodigies and geniuses have the remarkable abilities that the savant shows, but they do not have a disability. So, by definition, a savant includes someone with a disability, and a prodigy or genius are people who have these remarkable skills but they do not have a disability.”

PeopleShowsAbilityGeniusSkillsDefinitionsRemarkableDisabilityProdigiesSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“Savant syndrome is not a disorder in the same way as autism is a disorder or dementia is a disorder. Savant syndrome are some conditions that are superimposed and grafted on to some underlying disability. So savant syndrome is not a disease or disorder in and of itself. It is a collection of characteristics, or symptoms, or behaviors that have grafted on to the underlying disability.”

WayConditionsDiseaseBehaviorCharacteristicsCollectionsDisorderDisabilityAutismSymptomsSyndromesDementiaSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“The term syndrome generally appears to be a constellation, or collection, of similar traits or behaviors within an individual. So, savants do have sort of a constellation of symptoms, which is characterized by some spectacular skill, or skills, coupled with this massive memory which is grafted on to some underlying disability. So those three conditions quantify, in my mind, the term syndrome.”

MindThreeIndividualTermMemoriesConditionsSkillsBehaviorCollectionsMassiveDisabilityTraitsSymptomsSpectacularConstellationsSyndromesSavants
Author:Darold Treffert
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“Science in England is not a profession: its cultivators are scarcely recognised even as a class. Our language itself contains no single term by which their occupation can be expressed. We borrow a foreign word [Savant] from another country whose high ambition it is to advance science, and whose deeper policy, in accord with more generous feelings, gives to the intellectual labourer reward and honour, in return for services which crown the nation with imperishable renown, and ultimately enrich the human race.”

GivingHumansCountryFeelingsScienceLanguageNationsTermRaceClassPolicyReturnAmbitionIntellectualEnglandRewardsDeeperProfessionHuman RaceGenerousOccupationHonourCrownsAccordRenownLabourersSavantsHigh Ambition
Book:The Exposition of 1851; or, Views of the industry, the science, and the government of England
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“Animals are like autistic savants. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that animals might actually be autistic savants. Animals have special talents normal people don't, the same way autistic people have special talents normal people don't; and at least some animals have special forms of genius normal people don't, the same way some autistic savants have special forms of genius. I think most of the time animal genius probably happens for the same reason autistic genius does: a difference in the brain autistic people share with animals.”

PeopleThinkingWayDoeReasonFactsMightHappensFormDifferencesAnimalBrainShareSpecialTalentGeniusNormalAutisticSpecial TalentsSavants
Book:Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
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