Jean de la Bruyere Quotes About Genius

Quotes about: Genius

• Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Hard Work, Men, Hands

  "Of Books". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

• It requires more than mere genius to be an author.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Writing, Genius, Mere

  "The "Characters" of Jean de la Bruyère". "Of the Works of the Spirit". Book by Jean de la Bruyère. Translated by Henri Van Laun, 1885.

• A man unattached and without wife, if he have any genius at all, may raise himself above his original position, may mingle with the world of fashion, and hold himself on a level with the highest; this is less easy for him who is engaged; it seems as if marriage put the whole world in their proper rank.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Fashion, Men, Wife

• The whole genius of an author consists in describing well, and delineating character well. Homer, Plato, Virgil, Horace only excel other writers by their expressions and images; we must indicate what is true if we mean to write naturally, forcibly and delicately.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Plato, Writing, Character

• Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Age, Genius, Moments

• Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part.
  [Fr., Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout a sa partie.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Genius, Talent, Proportion

• We meet With few utterly dull and stupid souls: the sublime and transcendent are still fewer; the generality of mankind stand between these two extremes: the interval is filled with multitudes of ordinary geniuses, but all very useful, and the ornaments and supports of the commonwealth.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Stupid, Two, Support

• Criticism is as often a trade as a science, requiring, as it does, more health than wit, more labour than capacity, more practice than genius.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Science, Practice, Criticism

• Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Fall, Men, Order

• Genius and great abilities are often wanting; sometimes, only opportunities. Some deserve praise for what they have done; others for what they would have done.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Opportunity, Genius, Done

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