Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
I didn’t get into rap to be no lyrical genius. I got into rap to feed my family and help the people in need around me, that’s it. A lot of people say, ‘Man, Waka Flocka ain’t go no lyrics,’ so I was like, ‘Yeah, you right!’
I think you’re all mad. But that’s part and parcel of being an artistic genius, isn’t it?
Genius is independent of situation.
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
I think I always have Woody Allen in mind whenever I’m creating anything. He’s such a genius, and I think ‘Annie Hall’ is one of the greatest movies ever written.
Commerce changes the fate and genius of nations.
I don’t want to compare myself to him – I don’t want people to see me as this great genius – but when I see Charlie Chaplin’s movies there is a combination of drama, naivety and social meaning that I can see in myself, at a different level.
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.
To understand Europe, you have to be a genius – or French.
Neatness begets order; but from order to taste there is the same difference as from taste to genius, or from love to friendship.
I think eyebrow gel is genius.
Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.
Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
This adoration of an artist as a lone genius is quite misled, I think, because they are very much part of their time and their community.
Genius is patience.
Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.
Quentin Tarantino is a genius. I want to do every single film with him.
Steve Jobs is considered an amazing genius and made billions of dollars. Sure, we overlook that he didn’t pay his share of taxes and didn’t believe in charity. But other than these occasional rumblings of dissent, he is pretty much held in high esteem.
When I was younger, my dad taught me how to cook. He’s a genius in the kitchen. I went to Vietnam with my parents, and I went on a cooking course with him.
Some people are better at maths than others: no one thinks you can be ‘taught’ to be a mathematical genius. And no one thinks of teaching, in that context, as a kind of forcing of the will. But there seems to be an idea of writing as an intuitive pastime which is being dishonestly subjected to counterintuitive methods.
I do love the clothes on ‘Mad Men’ because my character has been so elegant and I would never have had access to these clothes. I think Janie Bryant is a costume designing genius. They’ll call and tell me, ‘It will only take an hour,’ and I’m like, ‘I will try on the whole truck!’
Mild autism can give you a genius like Einstein. If you have severe autism, you could remain nonverbal. You don’t want people to be on the severe end of the spectrum. But if you got rid of all the autism genetics, you wouldn’t have science or art. All you would have is a bunch of social ‘yak yaks.’
The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.
‘AVP’ is not trying to be ‘Alien’ or ‘Aliens,’ and it’s not trying to be ‘Predator.’ Those are genius movies.
Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
I think that all the Mel Brooks’ company of actors is just tremendous. It was a crazy group of genius people. All of them taught me what kind of actor I should be and what was funny.
Your ideas and the things that you do are dumb and stupid and make no sense – until you start getting recognized and making money. Then you’re a genius.
The genius of America is that we are still a land of undiscovered shores, and we are at our best when we open our hearts and allow the night winds to bring renewed visions of great deeds.
People either think I’m this totally savage, idiot-savant genius guy who’s lucked out or they think I’m a super-manipulative crafty businessman, this kind of MBA guy who’s spotted a gap in the market and knows how to create a product for it. It’s flattering, but I’ve not got that much of a gameplan.
Love can reach the same level of talent, and even genius, as the discovery of differential calculus.
Mark Zuckerberg is a genius. Not in the Asperger’s, autistic way depicted in the very fictional movie ‘The Social’ Network, the cognitive genius of exceptional ability. That’s a modern definition that reduces the original meaning.
In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.
My father was a genius footballer, a natural, two-footed centre-forward who had played for Arsenal juniors, but he was sent out to work aged 14 and so lived out his life in a frustrated, rageful way.
Genius, when young, is divine.
It is the union of independence and dependence of these branches – legislative, executive and judicial – and of the governmental functions possessed by each of them, that constitutes the marvellous genius of this unrivalled document.
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.
In Mozart and Salieri we see the contrast between the genius which does what it must and the talent which does what it can.
The genius of guys like Lincoln and Reagan and FDR – the great communicator leaders – is that they’re actually educators, so they understand when they use a phrase that they have to explain it, because, by definition, you won’t understand it or they wouldn’t need to be using it.
People say to me, ‘You’re a genius; you’re great.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever feel that way about myself. Some things, I feel like, are better left for other people to say, and I’m just not into, like, tooting my own horn or bragging or anything.
I’m a devotee of Stephen Sondheim. I think he’s a genius.
It is crazy. It’s our first kid, and all of a sudden, she identifies letters as what they are, and you go, ‘This kid is a genius – she’s obviously some sort of savant!’
Should you be so unfortunate as to suppose you are a genius, and that ‘things will come to you,’ it would be well to undeceive yourself as soon as possible. Make up your mind that industry must be the price of all you obtain, and at once begin to pay down.
Genius is a promontory jutting out into the infinite.
Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other.
The central genius of the American Constitution lies in its use of structure to protect individual liberty. It does not rely solely, or even primarily, on grants of substantive rights.
Jesus of Nazareth was a poet, no less than a prophet, of pre-eminent genius.
I don’t think Ireland has ever had a genius for the novel. Of course, there were plenty of Irish novels, but I don’t think that was ever the natural means of expression for the Irish.
I am not worthy to be on a Mariah Carey record. She’s a true artist, so I just step back and watch the genius occur.
It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it’s just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences by trying to reflect back to them the genius of their own cultures, and to do that, oftentimes, in new jazz settings, new arrangements. It’s a way to show respect.
Ronald Isley is a musical genius.
Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they’d applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.
Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.
Pete Docter’s a genius isn’t he?
If we will maintain our hope and confidence in the genius of our people, they will work out this problem, and their ability and industry will bring us back to normal conditions.
Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.
Ricky Gervais is a genius.
The lucky person passes for a genius.
The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media.
There are so many remarkable playwrights working right now, that I see everything I can. Annie Baker is a genius, I’ll see anything she writes. The same for Lynn Nottage, Cynthia Hopkins, and Lisa D’Amour. Anything they’ve got going on, I’ll go see.
What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius.
If you set the attractiveness bar really low, people have to compliment you on your looks when they meet you in person. I’m pretty much a genius. I’m actually applying to work at the Genius Bar based on this trick.
The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.
