Genius Quotes
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For I think it is the case with genius that it is not when quiescent so very much above mediocrity as the difference between the two might lead us to think, but that it has the power and privilege of rising from that level to a height utterly far from mediocrity: in other words that its greatness is that it can be so great.
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I don't like that word 'discovery.' ... Sinatra was the first one to call Ray Charles a genius, he spoke of 'the genius of Ray Charles.' And after that everybody called him a genius. They didn't call him a genius before that though. He was a genius but they didn't call him that. ... If a white man hadn't told them, they wouldn't've seen it. ... Like, you know, they say Columbus discovered America, he didn't discover America.
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The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities
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A man of genius is not a man who sees more than other men do. On the contrary, it is very often found that he is absentminded andobserves much less than other people.... Why is it that the public have such an exaggerated respect for him--after he is dead? The reason is that the man of genius understands the importance of the few things he sees.
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Men of strong affections are jealous of their own genius. They fear lest they should be loved for a quality, and not for themselves.
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Genius is to other gifts what the carbuncle is to the precious stones. It sends forth its own light, whereas other stones only reflect borrowed light.
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Childhood and genius have the same master organ in common - inquisitiveness.
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Rules and models destroy genius and art.
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Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.
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You have read and heard that communist theory-the science of communism created in the main by Marx, this doctrine of Marxism-has ceased to be the work of a single socialist of the nineteenth century, even though he was a genius, and that it has become the doctrine of millions and tens of millions of proletarians all over the world, who are applying it in their struggle against capitalism.
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I was born in Memphis. There was music all around me, really deep and special music. I heard all these great masters at a young age.There was a great genius in my town, Phineas Newborn, who is one of the greatest pianists ever on the planet. He took me under his wings at about 9 and he put me on the right track.
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A man who is a genius and doesn't know it, probably isn't.
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Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses
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There is no such thing as an evil genius, as evil in it's self is stupidity.
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Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.
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Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.
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Now that I'm on Broadway, it's like NASA engineering with the costumes. I was very grateful for the slightly more high-tech ones in my show, 'Venus in Fur'; our costume designer Anita Yavich is kind of a genius.
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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.
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It is a mark of genius not to astonish but to be astonished.
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It's easy to be a genius in your twenties. In your forties, it's difficult.
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Character shows itself apart from genius as a special thing. The first point of measurement of any man is that of quality.
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All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly.
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As far as my creative urge is concerned, I do sit down and write my own music...I'll tell you a writer who I think is a genius: Ray Stevens. He comes up with some of the most fantastic novelty ideas. Dolly Parton also writes well. I like a lot of songs, a lot of writers.
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The unconscious self is the real genius. Your breathing goes wrong the moment your conscious self meddles with it.
