Unrecognized Genius Quotes

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered--either by themselves or by others.

For me, the saddest thing in the world is always lost potential. That is always the most heartbreaking thing, when there's something left to be mined from a situation or a person that goes unexplored; that's a tragedy to me.

The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.

I've never been critically acclaimed. I've never been nominated for no Grammy. I've never been on no magazine cover. It's almost taboo to say I'm actually good.

I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

Many discoveries must have been stillborn or smothered at birth. We know only those which survived.

'I'm Yours' was written effortlessly in about 20 minutes' time, and I honestly thought it was more of like a kids' song, and I didn't do anything with it for years.

An aging writer has the not insignificant satisfaction of a shelf of books behind him that, as they wait for their ideal readers to discover them, will outlast him for a while.

There are great actors we'll never see just because they haven't had my luck.

Some superior minds are unrecognized because there is no standard by which to weigh them.

There is a latent talent in everyone. I am nothing extraordinary just because I happen to be an actor. Everybody is extraordinary in his own way. One must identify one's own talent early on - one is not great merely when he gets recognized by others - and one doesn't become a nobody just because his talent is not widely known.

I believe there are Steve Jobses all around us. Really, what is happening is that they're being edited out of importance.

Many incredible artists die before they were famous.

I'm comedy's forgotten nearly man.

A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.

Among those people not graduating, there might be a Steve Jobs or Barack Obama. We'll never know.

Genius is never understood in its own time.

But I've got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album's worth of work as his legacy. That's all that life allowed him.

A prophet is not without honor except in his own country among his own people.

Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.

I had no desire to be famous; I just wanted to make the greatest music ever made. I didn't want anyone to know who I was.

Middle age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do.

Charles Ives was writing radically innovative music, but nobody performed it, and nobody knew about it.