#genius

The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius. ↗

— E. M. Forster

#conception #dead #experience #experiences #gain

To understand Mozart's contradictory qualities would indeed be to understand genius. ↗

— Lukas Foss

#genius #indeed #mozart #qualities #understand

You don't have to be a political genius to sniff the smell of blood in the water. ↗

— Rich Galen

#genius #political #smell #sniff #water

God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement. ↗

— Marcus Garvey

#created #eternity #first #follow #genius

Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly. ↗

— Jose Ortega y Gasset

#better #beware #clearly #genius #inspiration

Genius is the talent of a person who is dead. ↗

— Edmond de Goncourt

#genius #person #talent #who

I think there have to be Bachs and Beethovens. We may have - there are so many more people. Musical training is available to so many more, but it may be that we've hit a right wall in terms of accessible styles and since we demand innovation as a criterion of genius, there may not be more innovative styles to be found. ↗

— Stephen Jay Gould

#available #criterion #demand #found #genius

Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun. ↗

— Franz Grillparzer

#genius #lightning #like #resembles #sun

The genius of any slave system is found in the dynamics which isolate slaves from each other, obscure the reality of a common condition, and make united rebellion against the oppressor inconceivable. ↗

— Andrea Dworkin

#any #common #condition #dynamics #each

Genius is nothing more than common faculties refined to a greater intensity. There are no astonishing ways of doing astonishing things. All astonishing things are done by ordinary materials. ↗

— Benjamin Haydon

#common #doing #done #faculties #genius