Even a genius cannot completely resist his Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time.
Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.
Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love.
I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.
Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
The most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses.
We can all be geniuses because one definition of genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains.
Poesy must not be drawn by the ears: it must be gently led, or rather, it must lead, which was partly the cause that made the ancient learned affirm it was a divine, and no human skill, since all other knowledges lie ready for any that have strength of wit; a poet no industry can make, if his own genius be not carried into it.
One of my greatest inspirations for stand-up was Jonathan Winters. He was a genius. One thing about him, and also Lenny Bruce, is that they were in the tradition of the one-man show. That's why Richard Pryor was so great, and George Carlin, too. They prowled the stage, they used voices, they were really talents.
Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace; it may serve to cast a gleam of light on those that are without, while the inhabitant sits in darkness.
The three theater peeps I would love to dine with are Mel Brooks, because he is so funny; Stephen Sondheim, because he is a god-like genius; and Ethel Merman, to compare notes on fabulous belting.
Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius - and I count myself among these - have to restore the lost connection once more.
There are some good teachers out there, but the only one who is a genius at diagnosing my swing is my mom. She took up golf late, when she was 39, but in her younger days, she was an amazing athlete. She never read an instruction book or took lessons, but she has a remarkable eye for motion.
In every age in which books have been produced, the governing class, the respectable, have been opposed to the works of real genius.
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.
The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities.
Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.
A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger is always that he will not recognize when he is dull.
