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| A typical genus poster, depicting archetypical geniuses: Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and Leonardo da Vinci, a group representative of the motto: “a genius is someone who has mastered certain principles and ways of conducting themselves, so that they can achieve any desire they want—because there are certain laws at work which we are not aware of, yet which the genius has discovered through trial and error.” [6] |
See main: Genius epochsThe following are genius types by epoch or by nationality:
“What are the proofs, the characteristics of genius? — Answer invention of (a system) new systems or combinations of old ideas.1. The man, who has a faculty of inventing and combining into one machine, or system, for the execution of some purpose and accomplishment of some end, a great number and variety of wheels, levers, pullies, ropes, etc., has a great ‘mechanical genius’. And the proofs of his genius (unless it happens by mere luck) will be proportionably to the number, and variety of movements, the nice connection of them, and the efficacy of the entire machine to answer its end. The last, I think at present, ought to be considered in [estimating?] any genius. For although genius may be shown in the invention of a complicated machine, which may be useless, or too expensive, for the end proposed, yet one of the most difficult points is to contrive the machine in such a manner, as to shorten, facilitate, and cheapen, any manufacture, etc. For to this end a man will be obliged to revolve in his mind perhaps a hundred machines, which are possible but too unwieldy or expensive, and to select from all of them, one, which will answer the purposes mentioned.
2. The man who has a faculty of feigning (a great number, and variety of characters, actions, events, etc.) and combining into one regular, correct, consistent plan or story, a great number and variety of characters, actions, events, etc. has a great ‘poetical genius’. And the proofs of his genius are in proportion to the variety, consistency and number of his characters, actions and events; and to the nice connection and dependence of these upon each other through a whole poem. And these proofs have been given in a surprising degree by Milton and Shakespeare, Homer, Virgil, etc. Milton has feigned the characters of arch angels and devils, of sin, death, etc., out of his own creative imagination and has adjusted, with great sagacity, every action and event in his whole poem to these characters.
3. The man, who has a faculty of inventing experiments and [reasoning?] on them [means?] of starting new experiments from that reasoning, and on these experiments forming new reasonings till he reduces all his experiments, all his phenomena, to general laws and rules, and combines those rules to an orderly [and regular dependence on each other, through the whole system, has a great ‘philosophic genius’.
4. The man who has a faculty of considering all the faculties and properties of human nature, as the senses, passions, reason, imagination and faith, and of (combining) classing all these into order, into rules, for the conduct of private life, has a great ‘moral genius’ (genius in morality).
5. He who has a faculty of combining all these into rules, for the government of society, to procure peace, plenty, liberty, has a great ‘political genius’.
Thus order, method, system, connection, plan, or whatever you call it, is the greatest proof of genius, next to invention of new wheels, characters, experiments, rules, laws, which is perhaps the first and greatest.
Query. Does not the word invention express both these faculties, of inventing wheels &c. and putting them in order.
Query. May not genius be shown in arranging a man’s diet, exercise, sleep, reading, reflection, writing, etc., in the best order and proportion, for his improvement in knowledge?
These are but vague, general, indeterminate reflections. I have not patience to pursue every particular attentively. But, this patience’ (is the greatest attainment) or a great superiority to a man’s own unsteadiness, is perhaps one of the greatest marks of genius. inattention, wandering, unconnected thoughts, are the opposites to this patience.”
See main: LibrariesMost big time geniuses, e.g. Young, Jefferson, Goethe, Einstein, etc., tend to have personal libraries in the 1,000 to 6,000 book range.
See main: Latitude and genius; 42˚ rule (see also: Monydit Malieth)The optimum latitude for the development of genius mind development, per reasons of sun light distribution, as historical data evidences, e.g. Nobel Prizes winner upbringing locations, famous schools locations, happiness vs suicide rate distributions (a genius needs to be not too happy, but also not to suicidal, to be functional), etc., is 42 degrees in latitude ±10˚; there's a reason why there's no Harvards at Hawaii, in short.
See main: Genius age rule; See also: Famous publications by ageWhat is referred to as the “Holmes hypothesis”, cited by genius studies scholar Dean Simonton, states that the 40th year mark is the making or breaking point of genius. [29]
“If you haven’t cut your name on the door of fame by the time you’ve reached 40, you might as well put up your jackknife.”— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (c.1840), publication (Ѻ)
“A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so.”— Albert Einstein (date), publication (Ѻ)
“You are now past 30 and you are no longer a physicist.”— Paul Dirac (1931), comment to Heisenberg shortly after his 30th birthday (Dec 5) [28]
See main: Bachelorhood and geniusIn respect to genius attainment level, there seems to exist some yet unwritten law according to which genius rank is inversely proportional to time spent married. Sudanese-born American thinker Monydit Malieth summarizes this as follows: [30]
“Geniuses are often misanthropist; they enjoy their lonesomeness because their minds are their best entertainment. Geniuses are also inclined to misogyny. If a background check is run on all of the world’s geniuses, a substantial percentage of them had relationship problems with women and a high percentage of them never married.”
“Look what happens to people when they get married.”— Niels Bohr (1937), comment to George Gamow, in reference to Paul Dirac’s 1937 post-honeymoon lackluster cosmology theory letter to Nature (Ѻ)
“Adam Smith had a lot in common with Isaac Newton. Both were lifelong bachelors. Both became professors at the university they had attended. Both were born after their fathers had dies. And both became fathers themselves of a new scientific discipline. Newton built the foundation of physics; Smith authored the bible of economics.”
“Training is nothing! The will is everything! The will to act.”— Christopher Nolan and David Goyer (2005), Batman Begins (vid)
“I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved ones is just poison in your veins.”— Christopher Nolan and David Goyer (2005), Batman Begins (vid)
“Like you, I was forced to learn the rhythm without decency. Your anger gives you great power, but if you let it, it will destroy you, as it almost did me.”— Christopher Nolan and David Goyer (2005), Batman Begins, version (Ѻ) as heard by Thims (vid)
See main: Genius IQs (ranking of the top 1000 geniuses)The standard numerical value for the classification of a genius IQ is the standard Terman definition of an IQ at or above 140, as listed below, along with other noted assignment criterion proposals and definitions: [2]
IQ = 125+ Catherine Cox definition (1926)
IQ = 140+ Lewis Terman definition (c.1917)
IQ = 140+ Tony Buzan definition (1994)
IQ = 145+ Ronald Hoeflin definition (1982)
IQ = 160+ Leta Hollingworth definition (c.1930)
See main: Insanity and genius; See also: CrackpotThere is no form of genius, Aristotle famous pointed out, “without a tincture of madness.”
“There are two kinds of geniuses. The characteristic of the one is roaring, but the lightning is meagre and rarely strikes; the other kind is characterized by reflection by which it constrains itself or restrains the roaring. But the lightning is all the more intense; with the speed and sureness of lightning it hits the selected particular points - and is fatal.”
“Geniuses are like thunderstorms. They go against the wind, terrify people, cleanse the air.”
“The ‘established’ has invented various lightning rods to counteract or divert geniuses: if they are successful—so much the worse of the established, for if they are successful once, twice, thrice—the next thunderstorm will be all the more dreadful.”
“Great men are meteors that burn so that the earth may be lighted.”— Napoleon Bonaparte (c.1820) (Ѻ)
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| Three hiatus effect geniuses: Newton (2-yrs), Goethe (1-yr), and Rankine (6-yrs), each of whom entered a period of "forced" convalescence prior to their rise to genius-stature fame. |
See main: Genius hiatus effectA significant number of geniuses seem to have the commonality of what seems to be seeds or inceptions of novel and/or revolutionary theory developed or conceived in preliminary outline during times of hiatus—gaps or breaks in the interruption of space, time or continuity, or in some cases spells of convalescence. We might well refer to this as the "hiatus effect" or convalescence effect.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”— Ferris (1986), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
“Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it. One should earn one’s living by work of which one is sure one is capable. Only when we do not have to be accountable to anyone can we find joy in scientific endeavor.”— Albert Einstein (1951), reply letter to female student thinking about becoming a professional astronomer (24 Mar)
“I, too, was originally supposed to become an engineer. But I found the idea intolerable of having to apply the inventive faculty to matters that make everyday life more elaborate—and all, just for dreary money-making. Thinking for its own sake, as in music! … When I have no special problem to occupy my mind, I love to reconstruct proofs of mathematical and physical theorems that have long been known to me. There is no goal in this, merely an opportunity to indulge in the pleasant occupation of thinking.”— Albert Einstein (1918), Letter to Heinrich Zangger
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| Three magnitude geniuses: Antoine Lavoisier (RE=51), James Maxwell (RE=48), and Ettore Majorana (RE=32), who each produced a great density of genius work in a very compacted number of years, as compared to epicenter geniuses, e.g. Aristotle (RE=62), Newton (RE=84), Goethe (RE=83), Einstein (RE=76), whose genius productions extended over a larger reaction extent (RE) or number of years (age) of reaction existence. |
“There are several categories of scientists in the world; those of second or third rank do their best but never get very far. Then there is the first rank, those who make important discoveries, fundamental to scientific progress. But then there are the geniuses, like Galilei and Newton. Majorana was one of these.”— Enrico Fermi (1938) (IQ=190), Italian physicist
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| A playboy art style depiction of the "elective affinities problem", namely how to explain passions of existence in terms of Bergman's 1775 chemical affinities theories (Goethe's day) or in terms of Gibbs' 1876 free energies (modern day). |
● Goethe (1796) (IQCit=225; IQ=230), who called his solution to this problem his "greatest work" or "best book" (1809), of all his 142+ collected works publications, in which he embedded a secret principle which he said was “true” and which was “only production of greater extent” in which he was “conscious of having labored to set forth a pervading idea”;
● Einstein (IQCit=225; IQ=220), who commented on the problem (see: Einstein on love), in a somewhat irritated perplexment scribble note: “gravitation cannot be responsible for people falling in love” (1933) and previously in query to geneticist Thomas Morgan: “how on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?” (1920s);
● Thims (1995) who was led into the problem, similar to Goethe, via a mixture of the "love thought experiment" and the "reverse engineering puzzle";
● Hirata (2000) (IQCit=225; IQ=190), who called his solution a "fun compilation of worthless applications of physics and mathematics to relationships";
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| A depiction of the burning of the books of the Library of Alexandria by Gustave Dore. |
See main: Universal genius; Last universal genius; Last person who knew everythingA rare few are considered as universal geniuses, being one with a universal mastery of knowledge, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), the one to whom this eponym is generally assigned. The so-called "last universal genius", frequently mentioned include: Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), and Johann Goethe (1749-1832), Goethe being the preeminent example of this group:
“Goethe comes as close to deserving the title of a universal genius as any man who has ever lived”; “Scholars agree that Goethe was the last universal genius: practically nothing within reach of the human mind escaped his attention”;
“The middle of the eighteenth century witnessed the first powerful revolt against cultural tradition, which is marked by Rousseau. This tradition was restarted by universal genius Goethe. But it was restarted for the last time. Goethe had not been succeeded by another universal genius”; “Since my method is juxtaposition, I delight in bringing together universal genius Goethe, with Sigmund Freud, Samuel Johnson, and Thomas Mann.”
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| Left: American literary genius Ernest Hemingway reading and writing at his standup desk. Hemingway once declaring that: “writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up,” which he did by perching his typewriter on a chest-high shelf, while his desk became obscured by books. [14] Center: Newton's geometrical proof of universal gravitation: in which he showed that if a body Q orbits in an ellipse, the implied force toward the focus S (not the center C) varies inversely with the square of distance; a proof that he derived while standing up. [12] Right: Goethe reading ajar during his Roman adventure years (c.1787); he began to read avidly, at age six, following the disturbing news of the 1755 earthquake of Lissabon, Portugal, during which more than 30,000 people dereacted. |
See main: Stand up writingIsaac Newton wrote his entire Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, during the years mid 1686 to 28 Apr 1686, in which he proved by geometry, the mode of universal gravitation, namely that if a body Q orbits in an ellipse, the implied force toward the focus S (not the center C) varies inversely with the square of distance, as diagrammed adjacent, while standing. As summarized by James Gleick: [12]
"The alchemical furnaces went cold; the theological manuscripts were shelved. A fever possessed him, like non since the plague years. He ate mainly in his room, a few bites standing up. He wrote standing at his desk. When he did venture outside, he would seem lost, walking erratically, turn and stop for no apparent reason, and disappear inside once again. Thousands of sheets of manuscript lay all around, here and at Woolsthorpe, ink fading on parchment, the jots and scribbles of four decades, undated and disorganized. He had never written like this: with a great purpose, and meaning his words to be read."
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| Left: Thims' circa 1995-1998 72x30-inch width by 29-inch height gray folding table, which he raised to 44-inches, by stacking books under each leg, so to "read (and write) standing up", as did Newton when he wrote his Principia from 1686 to 1688. Right: the same 44-inch sub chest-height / belly-button height standing-up-table, modified with permanent wheeled wooden legs attached, circa 1999-present. Right: Knottmann’s 1899 sit-stand desk, a semi-modern genius study method; the "stand method" being common to geniuses such as: Newton, Hemingway, Nietzsche, and Thims. [15] |
See main: Two cultures geniusA turning pointing or rather breaking point in the so-called grasp of the universality of knowledge at the genius level can be said to have occurred or typified in the 1833 Whewell-Coleridge debate after which the term "scientist" was coined over the older term "natural philosopher". This rift is captured well in American literature scholar Frederick Burwick's 1986 discussion of this growing rift, in the framework of Goethe's Faust:
“The age of Faust [1772-1832] had been the age of the ‘Renaissance man’, a time when the possibility of a universal knowledge, mastery of the arts and sciences, still seemed to be open to the ambitious mind;thereafter the separation and dispersion of intellectual endeavors, dubbed the ‘two cultures’ by C.P. Snow,resulted; whereafter, in the decades to follow, individuals such as Thomas Young (1773-1829), Humphry Davy (1778-1829),and William Hamilton (1805-1865), could all make serious claims to humanistic breadth, if not universality, in their intellectual accomplishments; nevertheless, a rift between the arts and the sciences was evident.”The term scientist in this period (1833) came to be defined as a student of the knowledge of the "material world", with an explicate footnote that the "moral world" was to be left to the natural philosophers and religious thinkers. This divided tension soon led to the 1874 Tyndall-Stewart-Tait debate on the question of whether religion should submit completely to the control of science.
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| Aristotle’s (IQ=195), above middle right, had the habit of walking about while he talked; his followers, called Peripatetics, are said to take their name from the word peripatêtikos, meaning “given to walking about”) or because he held lessons beneath the colonnades (or peripatoi) of the Lyceum. [16] |
See also: Real geniusNoted traits of true geniuses, such as Albert Einstein or Thomas Young, are firstly the trait of tending to process knowledge at a slower rate, then as compared to the tendency to pass over and assimilate given knowledge at a high rate of speed as being assumed correct. Young comments on this in his autobiographical sketch about himself: [3]
“Though he wrote with rapidity, he read but slowly, and perhaps the whole list of the works that he studied, in the course of 50 years, does not amount to more than a thousand volumes.”
“Scientific investigations are a sort of warfare, carried on in the closet or on the couch against all one’s contemporaries and predecessors; I have often gained a single victory when I have been half asleep, but more frequently found, on being thoroughly awake, that the enemy had still the advantage of me when I thought I had him fast in a corner.”
“I have little patience for scientists who take on a board of wood, look for its thinnest part, and drill a great number of holes when the drilling is easy.”
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| The three big epoch or "epicenter geniuses" of history: Aristotle, Goethe, and Einstein, about which a regular secession and hammering of surrounding geniuses produced the hardest blade of intellect centrally. |
See main: Epicenter geniusThe following noted quote by William James, from his 1880 article “Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment” (Ѻ), exemplifies the phenomenon of the genius who is an epicenter of geniuses:
“Sporadic great men come everywhere. But for a community to get vibrating through and through with intensely active life, many geniuses coming together and in rapid succession are required. This is why great epochs are so rare, – why the sudden bloom of a Greece [Aristotle], an early Rome [Cicero], a Renaissance [Goethe], is such a mystery. Blow must follow blow so fast that no cooling can occur in the intervals. Then the mass of the nation glows incandescent, and may continue to glow by pure inertia long after the originators of its internal movement have passed away.
We often hear surprise expressed that in these high tides of human affairs not only the people should be filled with stronger life, but that individual geniuses should seem so exceptionally abundant. This mystery is just about as deep as the time-honored conundrum as to why great rivers flow by great towns. It is true that great public fermentations awaken and adopt many geniuses who in more torpid times would have had no chance to work. But over and above this there must be an exceptional concourse of genius about a time, to make the fermentation begin at all. The unlikeliness of the concourse is far greater than the unlikeliness of any particular genius; hence the rarity of these periods and the exceptional aspect which they always wear.”
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| Common dietary needs of the genius: caffeine, which has a synergistic effect with calcium inside of brain cells to facilitate memory and thinking speed; chocolate, which has some kind of yet unidentified synergy between genius thinking and the brain (see also: chocolate theory of love); fish oil consumption, similar to milk (particularly in infants), is well documented to be associated with higher IQ levels. |
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| Right: one of the many milk scenes from the 2004 film The Aviator, the most memorable being the "come in with the milk", which is based on the reaction existence of Howard Hughes (see also: why is this site here?). The 1971 film A Clockwork Orange written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, adapted from Anthony Burgess's 1962 novella A Clockwork Orange, has a similar sort of milk scene. |
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| Epicenter genius Albert Einstein famously commented “I thought of that while riding my bicycle” in comment on his theory of relativity. Greek polymath and smartest female ever candidate Hypatia, famously had a rigorous physical training regime. The majority of the solutions to various conceptual human chemistry problems, as found in "highest IQ ever" cited genius Libb Thims' 2007 Human Chemistry textbook, were arrived at while running at 7.8-mph at a 15% incline, for an average of 6 miles per day, throughout the 2000s; photo at right is a circa 2012 shot of Thims' 15% incline running apparatus, with four hold on handles, four stop watches, and iPhone holder. |
See main: Genius and exerciseEinstein (IQ=220) has frequently commented that a large number of his theories were conceived while riding his bicycle. Einstein famous commented “I thought of that while riding my bicycle” in comment on his theory of relativity.
See main: Mislabeled geniuses and IQ testsFrench physicist Henri Poincare did so poorly on the Binet IQ that he was judged an imbecile (IQ=35); although we now rank him at IQ=195. American chemist Linus Pauling, who we now rank, in retrospect, at IQ=190, notably, failed to take some required American history courses and did not qualify for his high school diploma. The school awarded him the diploma 45 years later only after he had won two Nobel Prizes. Those who many consider the three greatest scientific minds of all time—Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein—were all viewed as ‘dunces’ in childhood. [8] Albert Einstein (IQ=220), supposedly, was three or four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read—he was born with a misshapen head: as a result, his parents feared he was mentally retarded; he so withdrawn or "set outside the group" that one governess nicknamed him ‘Father Bore’. [9] Einstein latter attempted to skip high school by taking an entrance exam to the Swiss Polytechnic, a top technical university, but famously failed the art portion. Isaac Newton (IQ=215), supposedly, did poorly in grade school. [9] Thomas Edison (IQ=180), as a boy, was told by his teachers that he was too stupid to learn anything. [9] Walt Disney (IQB=123) was fired as a newspaper editor because, supposedly, he had “no good ideas”. [9] Leo Tolstoy (IQ=?) flunked out of college. [9] Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. [9] American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims, who in 2012 was cited as having the "highest IQ ever", above that of Goethe, Newton, and Einstein, famously "flunked" second grade, i.e. was held back second grade and made to take the entire year over again, owing to teacher reports stating that he was "bored in class".
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| Left: Swiss-born Russian mathematician Leonhard Euler (IQ=195) lost sight in his right eye in 1735 from studying too hard continuously for three days straight while work on a complex problem; years later he lost sight in the other eye, in likewise manner. [13] Right: In 1937, the America's greatest child prodigy William Sidis, cited with a 250-300 IQ, sued the New Yorker, for their "April Fools" article on him, and Advertiser, which eventually settled for $375. In a breach-of-privacy suit against the New Yorker, the court ruled that Sidis could not claim privacy rights because he was still a public figure. In 1944 the magazine paid a reported $500 to settle a companion suit for malicious libel. Sidis died, met his reaction end, of a cerebral hemorrhage three months later. He was 46. |
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| A number of geniuses, including Aristotle, used the ball in hand sleep method. |
See main: Geniuses and sleep
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| Accelerated "active mind" geniuses who were victims of the so-called mental inertia effect: Jean Sales, who was imprisoned for his human molecule based moral philosophy, yet visited by Voltaire; Galileo Galilei, who was banished in exile and forced to recant heliocentric theory; Goethe, who for 23-years was not "vouchsafed many kind words" concerning his controversial Elective Affinities; and Henry Adams, coiner of the mental inertia theory, who was so far ahead of his time, in respect to the chemistry, physics, and thermodynamics of human social-history that in 1995 he was still being labeled, in a nearly upside down manner, as "more of a crank than a prophet" (John Diggins). |
See main: Catch up effect; Posthumous geniusAmerican two cultures genius Henry Adams, who was some 134-years ahead of his time in thinking, e.g. with with his view that: “social chemistry, the mutual attraction of equivalent human molecules, is a science yet to be created” (human chemistry was established as a science in 2007)—himself having to self-educate on his own beyond his Harvard education, which he considered to be a completed waste, that by 1907 he concluded that the highly “active mind” tends to be surrounded by less active minds moving with a type of “intellectual inertia”, inertia defined as the resistance of any physical object to any change in its motion (including a change in direction):
“The object of education should be the teaching [of] how to react with vigor and economy. No doubt the world at large will always lag so far behind the active mind as to make a soft cushion of inertia to drop upon; but education should try to lessen the obstacles, diminish the friction, invigorate the energy, and should train minds to react, not at haphazard, but by choice, on the lines of force that attract their world.”— Henry Adams (1907), The Education of Henry Adams
“When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”— Jonathan Swift (1706), “Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting” [21]
“It is difficult to overestimate the value of Goethe’s work to humanity. The bequest which he left to the world in his writings, and in the whole intellectual result of his life, is not as yet appreciated at its full worth; because, intellectually, the world has not yet caught up to him. His influence today asserts itself in a hundred minute ways—even where no one suspects it. The century has received the stamp and impress of his mighty personality. The intellectual currents of the age, swelled and amplified by later tributaries, flow today in the directions which Goethe indicated.”In other words, active mind genius often suffers from what is called the "catch up effect", namely, a multi-century delay in respect to the ability of culture to digest what a " lightening bolt genius" (person, date) or "hammered genius" (William James, 1880) produces. While some of this “mental inertia” issue, that active geniuses have to face, can be attributed to the so-called Semmelweis reflex—the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or paradigms—other aspects of it would seem to have to do something with the time it takes to rewire the cultural brain to the new truths perceived by the active mind, who may well be accelerated in thinking by some 1,000 books (e.g. Thomas Young) to 5,000 books (e.g. Goethe) in reading and digestion level, whereas for the cultural brain it may be delayed by multiple generations in respect to the same level of learning about nature and the universe. American physicist Percy Bridgman, in 1919, summarized this intellectual adjustment delay issue as follows:— Hjalmar Boyesen (1885), The Life of Goethe“Over thirty-seven years ago, Seligman first published his Economic Interpretation of History. It has gone through several printings, editions and translations. In itself that work is a living example of the peculiar myopia which afflicts the intellectual world. Sometimes it takes ten or fifteen years for that world to catch up with a Spengler. Kyserling was more transparent. Seligman himself in 1902 commented upon the fact that fifty years after Marxism had made its first appearance and had stirred to the depths economic, social and philosophical thought among European scholars, here in America Marx was scarcely known outside of a few obscure immigrants socialists.”— Morris Zucker (1945), The Historical Field Theory [23]
“I must say, I started watching your videos over a year ago, and have re-watched many. And they still fascinate me. I’m only 17 and I’m seriously considering doing a degree in chemistry after watching your videos. The only downside is not many people I know can have a conversation about the things you’re talking about. You were right your videos are decades if not a century in front of its time.”— Benjamin Cresdee (2011), comment on Human Chemistry 101 YouTube channel
“Sadly logic barely has any significance amongst a swarm of imbeciles. Some people are doomed to feel like an alien.”— Torandrius (2011), commentary on Libb Thims' HumanChemistry101 YouTube channel (Ѻ)
“The first business of a man of science is to proclaim the truth as he finds it; and let the world adjust itself as best it can to the new knowledge.”This "world adjustment", for some truth seekers, e.g. Benedict Spinoza, will only accrue posthumously.
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| Among “types” of geniuses, one example is “economic geniuses”, six of which, from Sylvia Nasar’s Grand Pursuit: the Story of Economic Genius (2011), are shown above, namely: Karl Marx (first), Paul Samuelson (fifth), and four others. [25] |
See main: Greatest economist everAmong geniuses, the great “universal genius” types aside, there are a number of subject specific geniuses, including: political genius, military genius, literary genius, economic genius, philosophical genius, among others. Adjacent, e.g., as shown on the cover of the 2011 Grand Pursuit: the Story of Economic Genius, by Sylvia Nasar, are six examples of “economic geniuses”, showing Karl Marx (first), Paul Samuelson (fifth), and four others. [5] In regards to "political geniuses", in 1758, American political thinker John Adams, great grandfather to two cultures social Newton genius Henry Adams, soon-to-become second American President (1797-1801) and most intelligent president, according to Dean Simonton, wrote a short essay on the nature of “genius”, which he defined as follows: "someone who is capable of inventing new systems or combinations of old ideas." After discussing the various different kinds of genius, based on this definition, e.g. writing, mechanics, morality, etc., he then went on to discuss the political genius: “he who as faculty of combining … these [laws of human nature] into rules, for the government of society, to procure peace, plenty, liberty, has great political genius.” [24]
See main: Uber genius comparison quotesThe following are geniuses commenting their views on the greatness of other geniuses:
“1642 [the year of Newton’s birth] is the Christmas of the modern age.”— Goethe (c.1800) (Ѻ)
“I admire Goethe as one of the smartest and wisest men of all time.”— Einstein (c.1935) to Leopold Casper [22]
“What Descartes did was a good step. You [Hooke (IQ=195)] have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colors of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen further it is by standing on your shoulders of giants.”— Newton (c.1790), letter to Robert Hooke (1676)
“If all the geniuses of the universe were assembled, Newton should lead the band.”
Quotes— Voltaire (c.1770)“Taking mathematics from the beginning of the world to the time of Newton, what he has done is much the better half.”— Leibniz (c.1810), told to the Queen of Prussia“The five greatest men I can name are: Newton, Bacon, Leibniz, Montesquieu, and myself.”
— Buffon (c.1770) when asked how many great men he could name
“Goethe and Da Vinci are perhaps two of the most many-sided intellects known to us.”— Otto Weininger (1903), Sex and Character“Gibbs’ work is the greatest synthetic achievement in science since Newton’s construction of the theory of universal gravitation.”— Boltzmann (c.1880) [18]
“Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed.”— Lagrange (c.1800) (Ѻ)
See main: Genius quotesThe following are related quotes:
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.”— Thomas Huxley (c.1890)
“Shakespeare, Bacon, Newton present an individual element which nothing in their parentage or nationality or locality serves to explain. Why each expended his power in a given way, may in part be made clear, but the source of those original gifts in inscrutable. The word, gifts, indicates this. Genius in any form is not a product to be compounded by the most subtle organic or social chemistry. This assertion does not deny a genetic dependence, but only a complete and exhaustive one. This proper name Milton or Goethe, remains forever the final designation of underived, unweighted combination of powers.”— John Bascom (1876) [20]“Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.”— Abraham Lincoln (1838), Speech, Jan 27 (Ѻ)
“When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.”— Ralph Emerson (1841), “The Method of Nature”, Aug 11 (Ѻ) (Ѻ)
“A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him.”— Napoleon Hill (c.1925) (Ѻ)
“The first and last thing which is required of genius is the love of truth.”— Johann Goethe (c.1810) [7]
“Talent accumulates knowledge, and has it packed up in the memory; genius assimilates it with its own substance, grows with every new accession, and converts knowledge into power.”— Edwin Whipple (c.1870), Publication (Ѻ)
“He is warmed by the sun, and so of every element; he walks and works by the aid of gravitation; he draws on all knowledge as his province, on all. beauty for his innocent delight, and first or last he exhausts by his use all the harvests, all the powers of the world. For man, the receiver of all, and depositary of these volumes of power, I am to say that his ability and performance are according to his reception of these various streams of force. We define ‘genius’ to be a sensibility to all the impressions of the outer world, a sensibility so equal that it receives accurately all impressions, and can truly report them without excess or loss as it received.”— Ralph Emerson (1877), “Perpetual Forces”
“The task of the early investigators who lay the foundation is quite a different one from that of their successors. The former have to seek out and establish the weightiest facts only, and to do this, as history teaches, calls for more intelligence than is generally believed.”— Ernst Mach (1897), The Mechanics in Their Historical-Critical Development [26]
“The tendencies of an age appear more distinctly in its writers of inferior rank than in those of commanding genius. These latter tell of past and future as well as of the age in which they live. They are for all time. But on the sensitive responsive souls, of less creative power, current ideals record themselves with clearness.”— George Palmer (1905), The English Works of George Herbert (pg. xii); cited by Arthur Lovejoy (1933) in The Great Chain of Being (pg. 20)
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”— F. Scott Fitzgerald (1936) (Ѻ) [31]
“Improvement makes straight roads, but the crooked roads, without improvement, are roads of genius.”— Edgar Poe (c.1840) (Ѻ)“We are fools to say, ‘He's a genius.’ We want to say that he attains something which is at the highest point of sensation, feeling, belief, knowledge, attachment.”— Nadia Boulanger (c.1970s), piano teacher, on performing genius (c.1970s) (Ѻ)
“Persons of genius with mysterious gifts: in many cases a wound has been inflicted early in life, which impels the person to strive harder or makes him or her extra-sensitive. The talent, the genius, is the scab on the wound, there to protect a weak place, an opening to death. Man and women who come successfully out of misfortune, they have a strength that is extraordinary.”-— Elia Kazan (1988), Elia Kazan: a Life (Ѻ)
