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Genius is sorrow's child.
Sep 10, 2025
Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones to genius.
Talent should minister to genius.
Leonardo da Vinci was comfortable being illegitimate, gay, a misfit, a heretic. But he also respected other people. He didn't get into disputations. He was a genius but he had a certain humility. In his notebooks you see lists of people he wanted to grill about things like how the water diversions in Milan work; he was always interested in learning from other people.
Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend
The poets scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. Genius survives; all else is claimed by death.
Genius is the error in the system.
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.
You don't have to be a genius when you're surrounded by morons.
Genius, even, as it is the greatest good, is he greatest harm.
Latent genius is but a presumption. Everything that can be, is bound to come into being, and what never comes into being is nothing.
A happy genius is the gift of nature.
Genius has somewhat of the infantine; but of the childish not a touch or taint.
Genius Borrows nobly.
Genius always looks forward, and not only sees what is, but what necessarily will be.
A genius is one who can do anything except make a living.
Every true genius is bound to be naive.
The productions of a great genius, with many lapses and inadvertences, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior kind of author which are scrupulously exact, and conformable to all the rules of correct writing.
The modes of expression of men of genius differ as much as their souls, and it is impossible to say that in some among them, drawing and color are better or worse than in others.
Genius is independent of situation.
It will work. I am a marketing genius.
Genius, like truth, has a shabby and neglected mien.
We know that the nature of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later.
The stigma of oddness is the price a myopic world always exacts of genius.
We measure genius by quality, not by quantity.
THE GENIUS of the industrial system lies in its organized use of capital and technology. This is made possible, as we have duly seen, by extensively replacing the market with planning.
Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out.
Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.
Everyone is born a genius.
Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.
There are no laws by which we can write Iliads.
Wit is the god of moments, but Genius is the god of ages.
With the stones we cast at them, geniuses build new roads with them.
To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.
From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots.
I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
I wouldn't use the word 'scared' for my role as Hitchcock, but it was my most insecure. Taking on such a formidable, giant personality such as Hitchcock; he was one of the great geniuses of world cinema. Sheer genius.
The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful, monopoly efficient. And so he simply set about achieving that efficient monopoly.
Bob has never written a bad song. Bob Dylan is a genius.
Claim whatever you want. Say you only want a happy family or a successful career or a big house. I say: no, that's not what you want. You'll settle for those things, but you really want a monkey that does your evil bidding. Pullman is a genius just for this.
Truly, the bench is a boon to idlers. Whoever first came up with the idea is a genius: free public resting places where you can take time out from the bustle and brouhaha of the city, and simply sit and watch and reflect.
Most infants are geniuses. They're indomitable, fearless, and completely in harmony with a cosmic proclivity for growth. They're heroes because they walk directly through adversity with love and ardent resolve.
My job is to make a film that can sit as a standalone piece, that if it's the only Marvel film you see, it's a great film with a great story in and of itself. The lucky thing is that there's a bunch of geniuses who run Marvel that make sure, even if it's a standalone piece, that it's part of a great big jigsaw puzzle that could be appreciated as a whole as well.
There's a certain standard in classical music that allows the application of the term "genius," but you're treading on thin ice if you start applying it to rock & rollers.
We started an organization that's the only sub-organization of the MacArthur Foundation and we are called the Macarturos. Usually when I win something, I'm the only one of my ethnicity to get it, but this time I met all these Latinos, and I was so excited. I'd meet someone and I'd go, [...] "Can you come to San Antonio?" And they'd go, "Oh yeah." [...] And suddenly I had twelve people that said they would come. And I didn't know how it was going to be. And that's how the Macarturos became a reality, where these very generous geniuses come to San Antonio and work together.
Genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies and animates.
Genius is that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates.
Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excellences which are put of the reach of the rules of art: a power which no precepts can teach, and which no industry can acquire.