100 Best Genius Quotes About Quick Thinking And Intelligence

Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Dec 12, 2023 By Rajnandini Roychoudhury
Originally Published on Feb 17, 2021
Edited by Isobel Murphy
Albert Einstein wax figure at Madame Tussauds museum in Istanbul. Albert Einstein was a physicist who developed the general theory of relativity.
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Read time: 12.4 Min

A genius is a person displaying exceptional intellectual ability.

They can be creatively productive, original, and universally adept. Geniuses are, to a degree, associated with discoveries and advancements in the domain of knowledge.

Francis Galton and James McKeen Catell analyzed the tempo of reaction and sensory acuity in the human mind's neurophysiological aspect and advocated it as a measurement of intelligence. The first intelligence or IQ test was developed by Alfred Binet and his colleague Theodore Simon and is used to measure a person's single, permanent and inborn intelligence level. The highest IQ score ever recorded is 263, of Ainan Celeste Cawley.

During the entirety of human history, there have been a great number of geniuses who have had an impact on humanity and its progress. Leonardo Da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Nikola Tesla, Issac Newton, and Ada Lovelace are just a few of the greatest geniuses to exist.

If you love these genius quotes, check out these Ada Lovelace quotes and Mozart quotes too!

The Best Quotes About Genius

Find the best quotations about genius, and its impact on the world.

1. "Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed."

— George Henry Lewes.

2. "Geniuses in the world... are undervalued and underutilized."

— Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, 'The Gifted Adult'.

3. "A genius is one who can do anything except make a living."

— Joey Adams.

4. "The true genius shudders at incompleteness."

— Edgar Allan Poe.

5. "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing."

— Gertrude Stein.

6. "No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness."

— Aristotle.

7. "The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure."

— Masashi Kishimoto.

8. "How near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them."

— Denis Diderot.

9. "Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence."

— Edgar Allan Poe.

10. "The genius is a man who knows everything without having learned it."

— Otto Weininger.

11. "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."

― Oscar Levant.

12. "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius."

― Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Valley Of Fear'.

13. "When a great genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

― Jonathan Swift.

14. "We all have genius within us, never doubt that fact."

— Catherine Pulsifer.

15. "Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last."

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

16. "Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius."  

— Henri Frederic Amiel.

17. "Genius is talent set on fire by courage."  

— Henry Van Dyke.

18. "Every great genius has an admixture of madness."  

— Aristotle.

19. "One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire."  

— John W. Foster.

20. "True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information."

— Winston Churchill.

21. "I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring."

- James McNeill Whistler.

22. "Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."

Woody Guthrie.

Famous Genius Quotes

Young female novelist in baggy sweater thinking hand at chin and looking away through window while sitting at cafe table with open diary and pen in hand

Find famous quotes on genius and wise people in the history of mankind in this list of genius quotes.

23. "Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live, as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them."

— Arthur Schopenhauer.

24. "Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience."

— Benjamin Franklin.

25. "The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor."

― George Bernard Shaw.

26. "I don't want to be a genius. I have enough problems just trying to be a man."

Albert Camus.

27. "Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius."

— An Wang.

28. "In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom."

— J. G. Ballard.

29. "Genius hath electric power which the earth can never tame."  

— Lydia M. Child.

30. "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

— Thomas A. Edison.

31. "If you think you can or can't, you're right."

— Henry Ford.

32. "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

—Albert Einstein.

33. "Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work."

—Thomas A. Edison.

34. "What we learn with pleasure we never forget."

— Alfred Mercier.

35. "If you expect the world to be fair with you because you are fair, you're fooling yourself. That's like expecting the lion not to eat you because you didn't eat him."

— John Spence.

36. "A genius in the wrong position could look like a fool."

― Idowu Koyenikan.

37. "We know that the nature of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later."  

— Louis Aragon.

38. "Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can."

— Owen Meredith, 'Earl Of Lytton'.

39. "This is the nature of genius, to be able to grasp the knowable even when no one else recognizes that it is present."

— Deepak Chopra.

40. "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."

― Oscar Wilde.

41. "In following the strong bent of his genius, he was self-assured that he should 'create the taste by which he is to be enjoyed.'"

— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

42. "Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together."

— G. C. Lichtenberg.

43. "When authority is total, so too is the madness of the man who declares it, and the potential for abuse of power."

— Rick Wilson.

44. "A genius is the man in whom you are least likely to find the power of attending to anything insipid or distasteful in itself."

William James.

45. "Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

— Mark Twain.

Best Genius Quotes About Life

Find the best genius sayings and genius quotations here, they will tell you an awful lot about life.

46. "Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see."

— Arthur Schopenhauer.

47. "Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more."

— Henry Ford.

48. "What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left."

— Oscar Levant.

49. "Sad people dislike the happy, and the happy the sad; the quick thinking the sedate, and the careless the busy and industrious."

— Horace.

50. "The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."

— Aldous Huxley.

51. "The man who can make hard things easy is the educator."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

52. "To act in accordance with the truth will be the easiest part, although it may require much in the way of moral courage."

— Emmet Fox.

53. "The reason a lot of people do not recognize the opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work."

— Henry Dodd.

54. "Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be a break-through. It is potential liberation and renewal as well as enslavement and existential death."

— R. D. Laing.

55. "The function of education is to teach the concept of thinking intensively and critically; intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education."

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

56. "Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them."

R. Buckminster Fuller.

57. "I've learned that while I'd be a fool not to stay open to the advice and experiences of the smart, amazing people in my life, I also need to listen to what I have to say."

— Alicia Keys.

58. "Genius without education is like silver in the mine."    

— Benjamin Franklin.

59. "Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it for a few minutes."

— Edgard Varese.

60. "The only genius that's worth anything is the genius for hard work."

— Kathleen Winsor.

61. "Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality."

— Benjamin Franklin.

The Best Quotes About Intelligence

Find the best quotes about being intelligent and use it to your advantage!

62. "It takes a lot of things to prove you are smart, but only one thing to prove you are ignorant."

— Don Herold, 'So Human'.

63. "It is easy to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

64. "We believe we can train any intelligent, quick-thinking person to be a trader. We feel traders are made, not born."

— Jeff Yass.

65. "The one real goal of education is to leave a person asking questions."

— Max Beerbohm.

66. "I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."

— Isaac Newton.

67. "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of strength to move in the opposite direction."

— Ernst. F. Schumacher.

68. "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."

— Stephen Hawking.

69. "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do."

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

70. "A sign of intelligence is an awareness of one's own ignorance."

— Niccolo Machiavelli.

71. "We use our intelligence, our creative intelligence because we create with intelligence."

— John Trudell.

72. "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."

— Lao Tzu.

Quotes About Thinking

 

Smart quotes about the impact of thinking, be it positive or negative.

73. "No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking."

—Voltaire.

74. "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

— William James.

75. "Misery is almost always the result of thinking."

— Joseph Joubert.

76. "Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

77. "I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection."

Billy Joel.

78. "Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure."

— Tommy Lasorda.

79. "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."

— George Bernard Shaw.

80. "I am not what I think. I am thinking what I think."

— Eric Butterworth.

81. "Those who know how to think need no teachers."

— Mahatma Gandhi.

82. "To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate someone else's type of thinking."

William James.

83. "You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."

— J. K. Rowling.

84. "Our thinking and our behavior are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based."

— Deepak Chopra.

85. "No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted with no proof."

— Henry David Thoreau.

Famous Inspirational Quotes

Inspirational quotes for you to go out there and create your own version of genius!

86. "Genius is never understood in its own time."  

Bill Watterson.

87. "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower."

— Steve Jobs.

88. "Doubt is not a pleasant state of mind, but certainty is absurd."

— Voltaire.

89. "Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn't leak and no tire is flat."

— Rex Stout, 'The Doorbell Rang'.

90. "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

— Colin Powell.

91. "Nature gave men two ends - one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failures has been dependent on the one he used most."

— George Ross Kirkpatrick.

92. "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

— Voltaire.

93. "If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius."

— Joseph Addison.

The Best Motivational Quotes

Here are some wise and motivational quotes for you to take a page from. Including Einstein's famous line about being smart: "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

— Albert Einstein.

94. "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

— Will Rogers.

95. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

— Thomas A. Edison.

96. "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

— Albert Einstein.

97. "Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts."

Nikki Giovanni.

98. "When you make a choice, you change the future."

― Deepak Chopra.

99. "Faith is the element, the 'chemical' which, when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence."

— Napoleon Hill.

100. "There is no such thing as a special genius, a genius for mathematics, or for music, or even for chess, but only a universal genius."

— Otto Weininger.

At Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked these genius quotes, why not check out these Alan Turing quotes, or Michelangelo quotes for more?

Main image credit: Grey82 / Shutterstock.com

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Written by Rajnandini Roychoudhury

Bachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

Rajnandini Roychoudhury picture

Rajnandini RoychoudhuryBachelor of Arts specializing in English, Master of Arts specializing in English

With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature. 

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