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Quotes about genius

64 quotes from 50 people

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Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832
The first and last thing demanded of genius is love of truth.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Maxims and Reflections (1833), Maxim 382, trans. Stopp
- Truth & Lies
Genius, like humanity, rusts for want of use.
William Hazlitt1778–1830The Plain Speaker (1826)
His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings.
Ernest Hemingway1899–1961A Moveable Feast (1964), Ch. 17, “Scott Fitzgerald”
- Writing
The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894
You may have genius. The contrary is, of course, probable.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894
- Clever Jabs
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915
Not great understanding alone, not intelligence alone, nor both together, make genius. Love! Love! Love! that is the soul of genius.
NJNikolaus Joseph von JacquinOften credited to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Love
Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.
William James1842–1910The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 19
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I (21 December 1762)
The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
Genius is the aptitude for seeing invisible things, for stirring intangible things, for painting things that have no features.
Joseph Joubert1754–1824The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, tr. Paul Auster (1983)
(Of Shakespeare) A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce1882–1941Ulysses (1922) (243)
- Failure
The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man: It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself.
John Keats1795–1821To James Hessey (9 October 1818)
- Poetry