Carl von Clausewitz Quotes

The only term I won't accept is "genius."

You can do something with talent, but nothing with genius.

I know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don't know that I've ever heard any geniuses.

Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.

He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities.

Neither can we admit that definition of genius that some would propose--"a power to accomplish all that we undertake;" for we might multiply examples to prove that this definition of genius contains more than the thing defined. Cicero failed in poetry, Pope in painting, Addison in oratory; yet it would be harsh to deny genius to these men.

... Geniuses have a little extra something. There's that little something that you know is a little different.

Talent is a tenant in the house owned by genius.

I know of no such thing as genius, genius is nothing but labor and diligence.

The thing that most people call 'genius' I do not believe in.

Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects.

Genius declares itself to be a kind of higher masculinity.

Talent is the ability to say things well, but genius is the ability to, well, say things.

I have never considered myself a prodigy. Others have used that term, but I never bought in to it.

Look at the real prodigies, and I look like nothing compared to them.

Talent is some one faculty unusually developed; genius commands all the faculties.

There's a stark difference between the words 'prodigy' and 'genius.' Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do.

Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?

A genius is somebody who seemingly just reaches out of nowhere.

Great performers are, by definition, abnormal; they strive throughout their entire careers to separate themselves from the pack.

Let us leave to the brain what belongs to it, and agree that the work of the men of genius is of the superhuman, the offspring of man.

Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare.

Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry and it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.

There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.

We measure genius by quality, not by quantity.