True Genius Quotes:

Oh, I'm not a true genius. I'm a near genius. I would say I'm a short genius. I'd rather be tall and normal than a short genius.

- Mel Brooks

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Genius, Normal, True Genius

The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

- Samuel Johnson

topic: Determination, Mind, Genius, Talent And Genius, True Genius

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

- Winston Churchill

topic: Decision, Information, Evaluation, Uncertain Future, Conflicting Ideas

True genius sees with the eyes of a child and thinks with the brain of a genie

- Puzant Kevork Thomajan

topic: Children, Eye, Thinking, Genies, Eyes Of A Child

The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

- Edgar Allan Poe

topic: Communication, Thoughtful, Silence, Incompleteness, Genius And Madness

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men - that is genius... Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist... What I must do, is all that concerns me; not what the people think... Nothing can bring you peace but yourself; nothing, but the triumph of principles.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

topic: Believe, Heart, Men, Conformist, Non Conformist

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

source: "Maxims and Reflections". Book by by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Maxim 382, 1833.

topic: Love, Truth, Genius, Whole Truth, Firsts And Lasts

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

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

topic: Genius, Literature, May, Compound Interest, True Genius

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.

- Jonathan Swift

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Funny, Education, Truth, Dunces, True Genius

Every true genius is bound to be naive.

- Friedrich Schiller

topic: Intelligence, Genius, Literature, True Genius, Naive

I'm the artist formally known as Beck. I have a genius wig. When I put that wig on, then the true genius emerges. I don't have enough hair to be a genius. I think you have to have hair going everywhere.

- Beck

topic: Artist, Thinking, Hair, True Genius

A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Inspirational, Spiritual, Kids, Pride And Humility, True 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.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Lying, Science, Night, Day And Night, Fruit Of Labor

Genius, without work, is certainly a dumb oracle, and it is unquestionably true that the men of the highest genius have invariably been found to be amongst the most plodding, hard-working, and intent men -- their chief characteristic apparently consisting simply in their power of laboring more intensely and effectively than others.

- Samuel Smiles

source: Samuel Smiles (1861). “Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct”, p.319

topic: Hard Work, Men, Dumb, True Genius

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.

- Abigail Adams

topic: Character, Wish, Endurance, Inspirational Adversity, Facing Adversity

There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery.

- Dante Alighieri

topic: Inspirational, Happiness, Sympathy, Sorrow And Happiness, Sorrow Love

All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly.

- Alexander H. Stephens

topic: Lying, Hands, Genius, Fruit Of Labor, True Genius

Lenny Breau is one of the true geniuses of the guitar. I suppose he is a musician's musician. His knowledge of the instrument and the music is so vast, and I think that's what knocks people out about him. But he's such a tasty player too. I think if Chopin had played guitar, he would have sounded like Lenny Breau.

- Chet Atkins

topic: Music, Player, Thinking, Tasty, True Genius

The spark of a genius exists in the brain of the truly creative man from the hour of his birth. True genius is always inborn and never cultivated, let alone learned.

- Adolf Hitler

source: Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

topic: Creativity, Science, Men, Mein Kampf, True Genius

The true genius of a great manager is his or her ability to individualize. A great manager is one who understands how to trip each person's trigger.

- Marcus Buckingham

topic: Genius, Great Men, Triggers, Great Managers, True Genius

In matters of healing the body or the mind, vacation is a true genius!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Healing, Vacation, Mind, True Genius, Healing The Body

People who observe no limits in attempting to get work done aren't nearly as smart as they think. Hard work can be done by any fool. But to be highly productive, and still have plenty of time to rest and play, this is where true genius resides.

- Ernie J Zelinski

topic: Inspirational, Smart, Hard Work, True Genius

Atheism ... that bugbear of women and fools ... is the very top and perfection of free-thinking. It is the grand arcanum to which a true genius naturally riseth, by a certain climax or gradation of thought, and without which he can never possess his soul in absolute liberty and repose.

- George Berkeley

topic: Thinking, Perfection, Soul, Climax, Free Thinking

True genius repeats itself forever, and never repeats itself--one ever varied sense beams novelty and unity on all.

- Johann Kaspar Lavater

topic: Forever, Unity, Genius, True Genius

There is nothing so remote from vanity as true genius. It is almost as natural for those who are endowed with the highest powers of the human mind to produce the miracles of art, as for other men to breathe or move. Correggio, who is said to have produced some of his divinest works almost without having seen a picture, probably did not know that he had done anything extraordinary.

- William Hazlitt

source: William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.35

topic: Art, Moving, Men, True Genius

It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from itself. True geniuswill not impoverish, but will liberate, and add new sense. If a wise man should appear in our village, he would create, in those who conversed with him, a new consciousness of wealth, by opening their eyes to unobserved advantages; he would establish a sense of immovable equality, calm us with assurances that we could not be cheated; as every one would discern the checks and guarantees of condition.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

source: Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1544, Delphi Classics

topic: Wise, Wisdom, Eye, True Genius

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

- Barack Obama

source: President-Elect Victory Speech, delivered 4 November 2008, Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois

topic: America, Giving, Genius, True Genius

Richard Avedon is a true genius of photography and one of the greatest artists of our time.

- Donatella Versace

topic: Photography, Artist, Genius, True Genius

True genius does not fulfill expectations; true genius shatters it.

- Paula Abdul

source: "'American Idol' Recap: Adam Lambert Gets Funky On Itunes Night" by Gil Kaufman, www.mtv.com. April 1, 2009.

topic: Expectations, Doe, Genius, True Genius

To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill.

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

source: "Keeping Pace" by Keeping Pace, www.guernicamag.com. August 1, 2014.

topic: School, Men, Genius, Racehorses, Drudgery

That is the true genius of America-a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles.

- Barack Obama

source: 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address, delivered 27 July 2004, Fleet Center, Boston

topic: Dream, Powerful, Simple, Insistence, True Genius

True genius, in strategy or anywhere, lies in self-control, self-mastery, presence of mind, fluidity of thought.

- Robert Greene

source: Source: powerseductionandwar.com

topic: Lying, Presence Of Mind, Self, True Genius

Superficial knowledge ... is hurtful to those who possess true genius; for it necessarily draws them away from their main object, wastes their industry over details and subjects foreign to their needs and natural talent, and lastly does not serve, as they flatter themselves, to prove the breadth of their mind. In all ages there have been men of very moderate intelligence who knew much, and so on the contrary, men of the highest intelligence who knew very little. Ignorance is not lack of intelligence, nor knowledge a proof of genius.

- Luc de Clapiers

source: "Reflections and Maxims". Book by Luc de Clapiers, 1746.

topic: Ignorance, Men, Superficial Knowledge, True Genius

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

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

topic: Shining, Gentleman, Style, True Gentleman, Valet

After all, what more does a true genius want? The mind itself is the palace where all the real treasures, the works of art, the indulgences exist.

- Alex Scarrow

source: "TimeRiders: The Eternal War". Book by Alex Scarrow, July 14, 2011.

topic: Art, Real, Mind, True Genius

Indeed, what is startling about the notion of a victimless crime is that even when the behavior in question is genuinely victimless, its criminality is still affirmed by those who are eager to punish it. It is in such cases that the true genius lurking behind many of our laws stands revealed. The idea of a victimless crime is nothing more than a judicial reprise of the Christian notion of sin.

- Sam Harris

source: Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.159, W. W. Norton & Company

topic: Christian, Law, Ideas, True Genius

Most of the things I do are misunderstood. Hey, after all, being misunderstood is the fate of all true geniuses, is it not?

- Howard Stern

topic: Fate, Misunderstood, Genius, Private Parts, Being Misunderstood

The man of true genius never lives before his time, he never undertakes impossibilities, and always embarks on his enterprise at the suitable place and period. Though he may catch a glimpse of the coming light as it gilds the mountain top long before it reaches the eyes of his contemporaries, and he may hazard a prediction as to the future, he acts with the present.

- Joseph Henry

source: Joseph Henry (1886). “Scientific Writings”

topic: Life, Eye, Men, Suitable, True Genius

What opposite discoveries we have seen! (Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets.) One makes new noses, one a guillotine, One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets; But vaccination certainly has been A kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets.

- Lord Byron

source: Lord Byron (2015). “Don Juan”, p.28, Sheba Blake Publishing

topic: Science, Discovery, Opposites, Antithesis, Empty Pockets

It is the privilege of true genius, And especially genius who opens up a new path, To make great mistakes with impunity

- Lewis Carroll

topic: Mistake, Philosophical, Genius, True Genius, New Paths

True genius doesn't fulfill expectations, it shatters them.

- Arlene Croce

source: Arlene Croce (2003). “Writing in the Dark, Dancing in The New Yorker: An Arlene Croce Reader”, p.48, Macmillan

topic: Acceptance, Expectations, Genius, True Genius

True genius can be identified by the fact that its expression changes the world into something it has never been before.

- David Gerrold

topic: Expression, Genius, World, True Genius

And to all those who have wondered if Americas beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope. For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

- Barack Obama

source: Barack Obama's Victory Speech at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, abcnews.go.com. November 4, 2008.

topic: Opportunity, America, Giving, Beacons, True Strength

There are teachers and students with square minds who are by nature meant to undergo the fascination of catagories. For them, 'schools' and 'movements' are everything; by painting a group symbol on the brow of mediocrity, they condone their own incomprehension of true genius.

- Vladimir Nabokov

topic: Teacher, School, Squares, Incomprehension, True Genius

I have had the great good fortune of working with a true genius of yoga, Karuna Erickson, in developing a new system called Heart Yoga.

- Andrew Harvey

topic: Yoga, Heart, Genius, True Genius

Nature alone is the master of true genius.

- Leonardo da Vinci

topic: Nature, Genius, Masters, True Genius

Peter had a genius for imitation; but he lacked true genius, which is creative and makes all from nothing.

- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

source: "The Social Contract & Discourses".

topic: Creative, Nihilism, Genius, True Genius

I’m very proud of Seungri. I worked over a year for my album, but one day YG told Seungri to make an album and he made one in just 2 weeks. Ah, maybe 3 weeks. He’s a true genius. I’m jealous of his propulsion.

- G-Dragon

topic: Jealous, Years, One Day, Propulsion, True Genius