Genius
A genius is someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight. There is no scientifically precise definition of genius, and the question of whether the notion itself has any real meaning has long been a subject of debate. The term is used in various ways: to refer to a particular aspect of an individual, or the individual in their entirety; to a scholar in many subjects (e.g. Isaac Newton or Leonardo da Vinci) or a scholar in a single subject (e.g., Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking). Research into what causes genius and mastery is still in its early stages, and psychology offers relevant insights.
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Famous quotes containing the word genius:
“O, woman! blinded by custom, look forth upon the world with your own eyes, and see ... things as they are. Consult yourself instead of man,... for in cultivating your own individuality, you are gliding into your true position in society.”
—Harriet N. Torrey, U.S. women’s magazine contributor. The Genius of Liberty, pp. 81-2 (August 1853)
“Realism to be effective must be a matter of selection. ... genius chooses its materials with a view to their beauty and effectiveness; mere talent copies what it thinks is nature, only to find it has been deceived by the external grossness of things.”
—Julia Marlowe (1866–1950)
“If you would get money as a writer or lecturer, you must be popular, which is to go down perpendicularly.... You are paid for being something less than a man. The state does not commonly reward a genius any more wisely. Even the poet laureate would rather not have to celebrate the accidents of royalty. He must be bribed with a pipe of wine; and perhaps another poet is called away from his muse to gauge that very pipe.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)