Genius

Genius is bound to be indulgent. It should know human errors so well — has, with its large luminous forces, such errors itself when it deigns to be human, that, where others may scorn, genius should only pity. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

A genius (plural genii or geniuses, adjective ingenious) is a person, a body of work, or a singular achievement of surpassing excellence. More than just originality, creativity, or intelligence, genius is associated with achievement of insight which has transformational power. A work of genius fundamentally alters the expectations of its audience. In Ancient Rome, the genius was the guiding or "tutelary" spirit of a person, or even of an entire gens. Those individuals who are labeled as geniuses or endowed with genius successfully apply previously unknown techniques in the production of a work of art, science or calculation, or master and personalize known techniques. A genius typically possesses great intelligence or remarkable abilities in a specific subject, or shows an exceptional natural capacity of intellect and/or ability, especially in the production of creative and original work, something that has never been seen or evaluated previously.

Quotes

Genius is patience.

Alphabetized by author

Common sense is governed by circumstances, but circumstances is governed by genius. ~ Josh Billings

Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. ~ Thomas Carlyle

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

For me, Kate Bush was always a trump card when the tiresome 'question' of female artistic genius came up. ~ Kitty Empire

My way hither was the way of destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute, part woman, and part God— nothing of man in me at all. Have I read your riddle, Sphinx? ~ George Bernard Shaw

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Hendrix had conjured – with his vision and sense of sound, his personality and genius – the most extraordinary guitar music ever played, the most remarkable sound-scape ever created; of that there is little argument. ~ Ed Vulliamy

• Genius is patience.
  • Anonymous proverb, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

• A genius is one who can do anything except make a living.
  • Joey Adams, as quoted in The Mammoth Book of Humor (2000) by Geoff Tibballs, p. 355

• There iz this difference between genius and common sense in a fox: Common sense iz governed bi circumstances, but circumstances iz governed by genius.
  • Josh Billings, "The Fox", The complete works of Josh Billings (1873, 1876), p. 116
  • Variant: There is this difference between genius and common sense in a fox: Common sense is governed by circumstances, but circumstances is governed by genius.
    • Transliterated by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 120
• Genius seems to be the fakulty ov doing a thing excellently well, that nobody supposed could be done at all.
  • Josh Billings, Josh Billings' Old Farmer's Allminax, 1870-1879: With Comic Illustrations, "May 1875", (New York: G. W. Dillingham Co., 1902)[1]
  • Variant: Genius is the faculty of doing a thing that nobody supposed could be done at all.
    • Paraphrased by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 182
• Genius after all ain't ennything more than elegant kommon sense.
  • Josh Billings, "Nosegays", The complete works of Josh Billings (1873, 1876), p. 314
  • Variant: Genius ain't anything more than elegant common sense.
    • Altered by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 182
• Tallent must hav memory, genius don't require it.
  • Josh Billings, "Saws", The complete works of Josh Billings (1873, 1876), p. 308
  • Variant: Talent must have memory; genius don't require it.
    • Transliterated by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 182
• Genius learns from nature; talent from books.
  • Josh Billings, attributed by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 182
• Men of genius are scarce, but men of genius who use their genius for the benefit of the world are scarcer.
  • Josh Billings, attributed by Donald Day, ed., Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything (1953), p. 182

• La génie n'est utre chose qu'une grande aptitude à la patience.
  • Genius is nothing else than a great aptitude for patience.
    • George-Louis de Buffon, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

• Genius is bound to be indulgent. It should know human errors so well — has, with its large luminous forces, such errors itself when it deigns to be human, that, where others may scorn, genius should only pity.
  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, What Will He Do with It?‎ (1867), p. 202

• Humor is properly the exponent of low things; that which first renders them poetical to the mind. The man of Humor sees common life, even mean life, under the new light of sportfulness and love; whatever has existence has a charm for him. Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius. He who wants it, be his other gifts what they may, has only half a mind; an eye for what is above him, not for what is about him or below him.
  • Thomas Carlyle, in 'Schiller" (1831), in Fraser's Magazine; later in Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1839)

• "Genius" (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all).
  • Thomas Carlyle, Life of Fredrick the Great, Book IV, Chapter 3 (1858–1865)

• Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.
  • François-René de Chateaubriand, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893) selected and compiled by James Wood.

• 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, Lacon : or, Many Things in Few Words (1821), p. 109

• Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

• The continuous capacity of genius to surpass understanding remains a human constant.
  • Denis Dutton, "Of Human Accomplishment", The New Criterion, February 2004

• The genuinely extraordinary person is the genuine ordinary person. The more of the universally human an individual can actualize in his life, the more extraordinary a human being he is. The less of the universal he can assimilate, the more imperfect he is. It is true that he may then be an extraordinary person, but not in the good sense.
  • Soren Kierkegaard Either/Or Part II, Hong p. 328 (1843)

• For me, Kate Bush was always a trump card when the tiresome 'question' of female artistic genius came up. ... Before disgust stopped me getting dragged into these skirmishes, I had a ready arsenal of Girl Greats — Patti Smith, Björk, Nina Simone, Delia Derbyshire, Polly Harvey, and so on. And yet, there would often be some caveat why genius eluded my candidates (ripped off Dylan etc). Until we would get to Kate. Female genius? Kate Bush. End of.
  • Kitty Empire, in in "Admit it, guys, she's a genius" in The Observer (29 October 2005)

• Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together.
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, in Aphorisms (1779 - 1788) as translated by Franz H. Mautner and Henry Hatfield

• There are people who possess not so much genius as a certain talent for perceiving the desires of the century, or even of the decade, before it has done so itself.
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, in Notebook D (1773-1775), Aphorism 70

• It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.
  • Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, in Notebook K (1789-1793) Aphorism 48

• Genius still means to me, in my Russian, fastidiousness and pride of phrase, a unique dazzling gift. The gift of James Joyce, and not the talent of Henry James.
  • Vladimir Nabokov, as quoted in What Is the Sangha? : The Nature of Spritual Community (2001) by Sangharakshita, p. 136

• Un genio es alguien que descubre que la piedra que cae y la luna que no cae representan un solo y mismo fenómeno.
  • A genius is someone who discovers that the stone that falls and the moon that doesn't fall represent one and the same phenomenon.
    • Ernesto Sábato, in reference to Isaac Newton, in Sobre héroes y tumbas (1986), Ch. X
  • Variant translation: A genius is someone who discovers that the falling stone and the moon that falls represent one and the same phenomenon.

• My way hither was the way of destiny; for I am he of whose genius you are the symbol: part brute, part woman, and part God — nothing of man in me at all. Have I read your riddle, Sphinx?
  • George Bernard Shaw, in lines for the portrayal of Julius Caesar, in Caesar and Cleopatra (1898) Act I

• Über Naive und Sentimentalische Dichtung.
  • Every true genius is bound to be naive.
    • Friedrich Schiller, Schiller's Poems‎ (1905), p. 200

• Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.
  • Arthur Schopenhauer, as quoted in The Little Book of Bathroom Philosophy : Daily Wisdom from the Greatest Thinkers (2004) by Gregory Bergman, p. 137

• Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.
  • Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, in De l'Allemagne [Germany] (1813), Part 2, Chapter 8

• Genius is a capacity for taking trouble.
  • Leslie Stephen, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

• Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others. But for the Civil War, Lincoln and Grant and Sherman and Sheridan would not have been discovered, nor have risen into notice.
  • Mark Twain in notes (26 May 1907); published in The Autobiography of Mark Twain (1959) edited by Charles Neider

• Hendrix had conjured – with his vision and sense of sound, his personality and genius – the most extraordinary guitar music ever played, the most remarkable sound-scape ever created; of that there is little argument. Opinion varies only over the effect his music has on people: elation, fear, sexual stimulation, sublimation, disgust – all or none of these – but always drop-jawed amazement.
  • Ed Vulliamy, in "Jimi Hendrix: 'You never told me he was that good'" in The Guardian (8 August 2010)

• Genius is an intuitive talent for labor.
  • Jan Walæus, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

• Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
  • E. B. White, in One Man's Meat (1944)

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 308-10.

• Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementia.
  • There is no great genius without a mixture of madness.
  • Aristotle. Quoted by Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Assigned to Aristotle also by Seneca, Problem. 30. Same idea in Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, XVII. 10. Cicero, —Tusculum. I. 33. 80; also in De Div. I. 37.

• Doing easily what others find it difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
  • Henri-Frederic Amiel, Journal.

• As diamond cuts diamond, and one hone smooths a second, all the parts of intellect are whetstones to each other; and genius, which is but the result of their mutual sharpening, is character too.
  • C. A. Bartol, Radical Problems, Individualism.

• Le Génie, c'est la patience.
  • Genius is only patience.
  • Buffon, as quoted by Madame de Staël in A. Stevens' Study of the Life and Times of Mme. de Staël, Chapter III, p. 61. (Ed. 1881). Le génie n'est qu'une plus grande aptitude à la patience. As narrated by Herault de Séchelles—Voyage à Montbar, p. 15, when speaking of a talk with Buffon in 1785. (Not in Buffon's works).

• Genius … means the transcendent capacity of taking trouble.
  • Thomas Carlyle, Frederick the Great, Book IV, Chapter III. Genius is a capacity for taking trouble. Leslie Stephen. Genius is an intuitive talent for labor. Jan Walæus.

• Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
  • Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, Part IV, Chapter 5.

• Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, Poverty of the Learned.

• Many men of genius must arise before a particular man of genius can appear.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795-1822).

• To think, and to feel, constitute the two grand divisions of men of genius—the men of reasoning and the men of imagination.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795-1822), Chapter II.

• Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795-1822), Chapter XII.

• Every work of Genius is tinctured by the feelings, and often originates in the events of times.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius (1795-1822), Chapter XXV.

• But genius must be born, and never can be taught.
  • John Dryden, Epistle X, To Congreve, line 60.

• When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Method of Nature.

• The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Race.

• Vivitur ingenio, that damn'd motto there
  Seduced me first to be a wicked player.
  • George Farquhar, Love and a Bottle. Epilogue written and spoken by Joseph Haynes. The motto "Vivitur ingenio" appears to have been displayed in Drury Lane Theatre.

• Genius and its rewards are briefly told:
  A liberal nature and a niggard doom,
  A difficult journey to a splendid tomb.
  • Forster, Dedication of the Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith.

• Genius is the power of lighting one's own fire.
  • John Foster.

• Das erste und letzte, was vom Genie gefordert wird, ist Wahrheits-Liebe.
  • The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Prosa, III.

• Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such
  We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
  Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind,
  And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation (1774), line 29.

• Perhaps, moreover, he whose genius appears deepest and truest excels his fellows in nothing save the knack of expression; he throws out occasionally a lucky hint at truths of which every human soul is profoundly though unutterably conscious.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse, The Procession of Life.

• Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.
  • William Hazlitt, Table Talk, On Application to Study.

• Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.
  • Josiah Gilbert Holland, Plain Talk on Familiar Subjects, Art and Life.

• Gift, like genius, I often think only means an infinite capacity for taking pains.
  • Ellice Hopkins, Work amongst Working Men, in Notes and Queries (Sept. 13, 1879), p. 213, a correspondent, H. P. states that he was the first to use the exact phrase, "Genius is the capacity for taking pains."

• At ingenium ingens
  Inculto latet sub hoc corpore.
  • Yet a mighty genius lies hid under this rough exterior.
  • Horace, Satires, Book I. 3. 33.

• Genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.
  • Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare.

• We declare to you that the earth has exhausted its contingent of master-spirits. Now for decadence and general closing. We must make up our minds to it. We shall have no more men of genius.
  • Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare, Book V, Chapter I.

• The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
  • Samuel Johnson, Life of Cowley.

• Entre esprit et talent il y a la proportion du tout à sa partié.
  • Intelligence is to genius as the whole is in proportion to its part.
  • Jean de La Bruyère, The Characters or Manners of the Present Age (1688), Opinions.

• Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
  • G. H. Lewes, Spanish Drama, Life of Lope De Vega, Chapter II.

• All the means of action—
  The shapeless masses, the materials—
  Lie everywhere about us. What we need
  Is the celestial fire to change the flint
  Into transparent crystal, bright and clear.
  That fire is genius!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Spanish Student (1843), Act I, scene 5.

• There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not, sooner or later, responded.
  • James Russell Lowell, Among my Books, Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

• Talent is that which is in a man's power! genius is that in whose power a man is.
  • James Russell Lowell, Among my Books, Rousseau and the Sentimentalists.

• Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge.
  • James Russell Lowell, Fable for Critics, line 1,296.

• Ubi jam valideis quassatum est viribus ævi
  Corpus, et obtuseis ceciderunt viribus artus,
  Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque.
  • When the body is assailed by the strong force of time and the limbs weaken from exhausted force, genius breaks down, and mind and speech fail.
  • Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, III. 452.

• Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man;
  Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can.
  Blot out my name, that the spirits of Shakespeare and Milton and Burns
  Look not down on the praises of fools with a pity my soul yet spurns.
  • Owen Meredith, last words. Pub. in Cornhill Mag. Nov. 1860, p. 516.

• Ingenio stat sine morte decus.
  • The honors of genius are eternal.
  • Sextus Propertius, Elegiæ, III. 2. 24.

• Ilud ingeniorum velut præcox genus, non temere unquam pervenit ad frugem.
  • It seldom happens that a premature shoot of genius ever arrives at maturity.
  • Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, I. 3. 1.

• Das Licht des Genie's bekam weniger
  Fett, als das Licht des Lebens.
  • The lamp of genius burns quicker than the lamp of life.
  • Friedrich Schiller, Fiesco, II. 17.

• Nullum sæculum magnis ingeniis clausum est.
  • No age is shut against great genius.
  • Seneca, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, CII.

• There is none but he
  Whose being I do fear; and, under him,
  My Genius is rebuk'd: as, it is said,
  Mark Antony's was by Cæsar.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act III, scene 1, line 54.

• Marmora Mæonii vincunt monumenta libelli
  Vivitur ingenio; cætera mortis erunt.
  • The poets' scrolls will outlive the monuments of stone. Genius survives; all else is claimed by death.
  • Edmund Spenser, Shepherd's Calendar, Colin's Emblem. End (1715). Quoted. Peacham, Minerva Britanna I (1612). Said to be from Consolatio ad Liviam, by an anonymous author, written shortly after Mæcenas' death. Attributed to Vergil and Ovid. See Notes and Queries, Jan., 1918, p. 12. Robinson Ellis, Appendix Vergiliana. Riese, Anthologia Latina.

• Genius is essentially creative; it bears the stamp of the individual who possesses it.
  • Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Corinne (1807), Book VII, Chapter I.

• Genius inspires this thirst for fame: there is no blessing undesired by those to whom Heaven gave the means of winning it.
  • Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Corinne (1807), Book XVI, Chapter I.

• Genius can never despise labour.
  • Abel Stevens, Life of Madame de Staël, Chapter XXXVIII.

• Genius loci.
  • The presiding genius of the place.
  • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), VII, 136. Genius signifies a divinity. Monumental stones were inscribed by the ancient Romans, "Genio loci"—"To the Divinity of the locality." Altar to the Unknown God. (See Acts XVII. 23).

See also

• Intelligence