I quite agree with Dr. Nordau's assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots.
Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed.
There is nothing in the genius of America more precious today than the spirit of religious and political tolerance in its application to our own people.
The poverty from which I have suffered could be diagnosed as 'Soho' poverty. It comes from having the airs and graces of a genius and no talent.
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Genius feels like an over extended Helium balloon about to burst, and everyone criticizes you for not having a conventional way of coping with it.
The genius of a folk melody or story is not the feeling that it's original but quite the opposite - the feeling that it has existed all along.
His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define; Of inspiration one percent, of perspiration, ninety nine.
Sometimes a book isn't a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Sometimes it's the only story you knew how to tell.
When things don't go well, it helps to think of yourself as a genius and the rest of the world as a bunch of idiots.
If bearing a reputation as a weirdo is all it takes to be a genius, I'm a shoo-in. Come to think of it, half the people I know are geniuses - the other half, peculiarly enough, idiots.
A possible link between 'madness' and genius is one of the oldest and most persistent of cultural notions.
The genius of Kate Middleton is that she hasn't gone too far. She's still dressing in a way that people can relate to.
A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.
It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.
Estelle Getty used the language of a truck driver, or a sailor. Bea Arthur didn't wear shoes. Bea Arthur was a comic genius. Her timing was extraordinary.
Martin Freeman is a genius, he really is. He gives you every color of the rainbow in every take and it's wonderful just to play off of him and opposite him.
I did buy 'The Sun' a few times, but I just don't read the tabloids. Sometimes they can have genius witty headlines, but that's all. There's nothing to read.
During this earlier period of his activity Voltaire seems to have been trying - half unconsciously, perhaps - to discover and to express the fundamental quality of his genius.
In the startup world, you're either a genius or an idiot. You're never just an ordinary guy trying to get through the day.
Only mediocrity can be trusted to be always at its best. Genius must always have lapses proportionate to its triumphs.
