Genius Quotes - Page 17

• Genius is never understood in its own time.

  Bill Watterson

  Reality, Understood

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• A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his engagements, leaves his letters unanswered, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, because he is powerless to turn his attention down and back from those more interesting trains of imagery with which his genius constantly occupies his mind.

  William James

  Family, Power, Men

  William James (1983). “Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals”, p.67, Harvard University Press

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• Genius has somewhat of the infantine; but of the childish not a touch or taint.

  Robert Browning

  Robert Browning (1915). “The poetical works of Robert Browning”

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• Genius is an overused word. The world has known only about a half dozen geniuses. I got only fairly near.

  Fritz Kreisler

  Half, World, Dozen

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• Many have genius, but, wanting art, are forever dumb. The two must go together to form the great poet, painter, or sculptor.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Art, Two, Forever

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.2078, Delphi Classics

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• A happy genius is the gift of nature.

  John Dryden

  John Dryden (1990). “The Works of John Dryden, Volume XX: Prose 1691-1698 De Arte Graphica and Shorter Works”, p.61, Univ of California Press

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• Was genius ever ungrateful? Mere talents are dry leaves, tossed up and down by gusts of passion, and scattered and swept away; but, Genius lies on the bosom of Memory, and Gratitude at her feet.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Gratitude, Memories, Lying

  Walter Savage Landor, Charles George Crump (1909). “Imaginary Conversations: Dialogues of literary men. Dialogues of famous women. Miscellaneous dialogues”

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• Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Men, Degrees, May

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• Obey thy genius, for a minister it is unto the throne of fate. Draw to thy soul, and centralize the rays which are around of the Divinity.

  Philip James Bailey

  Fate, Soul, Rays

  Philip James Bailey (1857). “Festus: a poem”, p.186

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• All are to be men of genius in their degree,--rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead walls encompassing dead heaps of things, known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks, on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers, and so pass on.

  John Ruskin

  Running, Sweet, Wall

  John Ruskin (1860). “The Stones of Venice...”, p.58

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• This is the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the crowd by those rays of whose heat they complain.

  Margaret Fuller

  Rays, Complaining, Crowds

  Margaret Fuller, Arthur Buckminster Fuller (1874). “Woman in the 19th century, and kindred papers relating to the sphere, condition, and duties of woman”, p.207

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• The proportion of genius to the vulgar is like one to a million.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Proportion, Vulgar, Millions

  "Aphorisms on man. Translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. John Caspar Lavater, citizen of Zuric. ; [One line from Juvenal]" by Johann Kaspar Lavater, 1790.

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• So far from genius discarding law, rather is it the supreme joy of genius to re-enact the eternal and unwritten law in the chamber of its own intel-lect.

  Charles Henry Parkhurst

  Law, Joy, Eternal

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• Genius has its fatality. Must we not see in its works a manifestation of the will of Providence?

  Arsene Houssaye

  Providence, Manifestation, Fatality

  Arsène Houssaye (1852). “Philosophers and Actresses”, p.107

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• Latent genius is but a presumption. Everything that can be, is bound to come into being, and what never comes into being is nothing.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Latent, Presumption, Bounds

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• Genius, even, as it is the greatest good, is he greatest harm.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Harm

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• There is genius as well in virtue as in intellect. 'Tis the doctrine of faith over works.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Doctrine, Virtue, Intellect

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1886). “The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations...”

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• You don't have to be a genius when you're surrounded by morons.

  Josh Lieb

  Intelligence, Moron

  Josh Lieb (2009). “I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President”, p.67, Penguin

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• The wild force of genius has often been fated by Nature to be finally overcome by quiet strength. The volcano sends up its red bolt with terrific force, as if it would strike the stars; but the calm, resistless hand of gravitation seizes it and brings it to the earth.

  Peter Bayne

  Stars, Volcanoes, Hands

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• There is none but he
  Whose being I do fear; and under him
  My genius is rebuked, as it is said
  Mark Antony's was by Caesar.

  William Shakespeare

  Antony, Said, Mark

  William Shakespeare (2004). “The Great Comedies and Tragedies”, p.855, Wordsworth Editions

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• 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.

  James Anthony Froude

  Appreciate, Lines, Taste

  James Anthony Froude (2011). “Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life, 1795-1835”, p.393, Cambridge University Press

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• Since that day, when people have spoken to me of "genius", I have felt the inside pocket to make sure my wallet's still there.

  Tennessee Williams

  People, Pockets, Wallets

  Tennessee Williams (1975). “Memoirs”, p.69, New Directions Publishing

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• Genius is the error in the system.

  Paul Klee

  Errors

  Paul Klee, Will Grohmann (1985). “Paul Klee”, Harry N. Abrams

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• Genius is talent set on fire by courage.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Courage, Fire, Talent

  Henry Van Dyke (2007). “Counsels by the Way”, p.87, Wildside Press LLC

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• The poets scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. Genius survives; all else is claimed by death.

  Edmund Spenser

  Survival, Stones, Poet

  "The Shepheardes Calender". Book by Edmund Spenser, 1715.

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