Charles Caleb Colton Quotes About Genius

Quotes about: Genius

• A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mistake, Creativity, Science

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.110

• Genius, when employed in works whose tendency it is to demoralize and to degrade us, should be contemplated with abhorrence rather than with admiration; such a monument of its power, may indeed be stamped with immortality, but like the Coliseum at Rome, we deplore its magnificence because we detest the purposes for which it was designed.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Rome, Purpose, Genius

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.239

• With the offspring of genius, the law of parturition is reversed; the throes are in the conception, the pleasure in the birth.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Law, Genius, Talent

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.300

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

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Talent, Particular

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

• The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Reason, Highest

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.24

• Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Numbers, Gold

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.395

• Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Literature, Nodding

• To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Feelings, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.386

• Neither can we admit that definition of genius that some would propose--"a power to accomplish all that we undertake;" for we might multiply examples to prove that this definition of genius contains more than the thing defined. Cicero failed in poetry, Pope in painting, Addison in oratory; yet it would be harsh to deny genius to these men.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Example, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.196

• Literature has her quacks no less than medicine, and they are divided into two classes; those who have erudition without genius, and those who have volubility without depth; we shall get second-hand sense from the one, and original nonsense from the other.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hands, Class, Two

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.232

• We submit to the society of those that can inform us, but we seek the society of those whom we can inform. And men of genius ought not to be chagrined if they see themselves neglected. For when we communicate knowledge, we are raised in our own estimation; but when we receive it, we are lowered.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Society, Genius

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.156

• Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Passion, Exercise, Order

• Style is indeed the valet of genius, and an able one too; but as the true gentleman will appear, even in rags, so true genius will shine, even through the coarsest style.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Shining, Gentleman, Style

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.10

• Extemporaneous and oral harangues will always have this advantage over those that are read from a in manuscript: every burst of eloquence or spark of genius they may contain, however studied they may have been beforehand, will appear to the audience to be the effect of the sudden inspiration of talent.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Inspiration, Genius, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.456

• 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.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Teaching, Should Have

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.161

• The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Literature, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1866). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.123

• When a man has displayed talent in some particular path, and left all competitors behind him in it, the world are too apt to give him credit for universality of genius, and to anticipate for him success in all that he undertakes.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Giving, Genius

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.181

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