Cheeky Quote Day! 19 August 2009

From Denny: This was a fun category I discovered recently - genius quotes. Since I grew up in the intelligence community where they chased after geniuses, even tried to breed them, this has long been an area of interest for me. I even used to throw all my IQ tests just so my father's "blessed" colleagues would never know my level of ability.

They had already nailed my mother and older brother and the last thing I wanted to be labeled was as a genius. In my experience all it meant was you had to memorize useless trivia to prove how smart you were and act like a performing seal at a marina for your handlers. That translated as a lack of freedom to live your life as you chose.

Humor has always been my choice of how to best react to life, especially when other people who don't quite "get it" try to harass, bully or stress you. More than anything I found it amusing how people who are not defined as geniuses have decided they know how to define genius. Now does that practice make any sense to you? It sure didn't to me when I was growing up in the weird atmosphere.

It would have been pure heaven to have some of these cheeky quotes to whip out and use from time to time when my father's crowd got pushy about trying to control someone else's intelligence, like you were a willing robot to be used as they willed. Too bizarre. Some of these quotes are by people labeled as geniuses and they have a wonderful sense of the ironic and good humor!

Quotes

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

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

I think the world is run by C students. - Al McGuire

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one. - E.B. White

In every work of genius, we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance," Essays, 1841

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. - George Bernard Shaw

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If the Aborigine drafted an I.Q. test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it. - Stanley Garn

The reluctance to put away childish things may be a requirement of genius. - Rebecca Pepper Sinkler

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstein

Character is higher than intellect. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality. - Albert Einstein

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up. - Mark Twain, "The Innocents Abroad"

Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. - George Scialabra

A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence. - Barbara Walters

The invention of IQ does a great disservice to creativity in education. - Joel Hildebrand

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't. - Emerson M. Pugh

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde. - Dolly Parton, singer and actress


Clown Photo by I'm Fantastic! @ flickr

Does Happiness Elude You?

From Denny: Like I'm always saying over here at The Social Poets, a good quote can spark a short essay of interesting thoughts! When I was writing this for my quotes blog, Beautiful Illustrated Quotations, it just seemed the thing to do was to share on several other blogs. This quote is from famed German writer in the past, Goethe. Visit any quotation site and find a quote that appeals to your imagination or passion of opinion to get you writing!

***

One of the beauties of coming from a family of very long-lived people is that you don't lose the institutional memory of historical events. Another plus is that you don't lose what former generations taught in the way of good character. What is in fashion in one generation is often out of fashion in the next and, so, we lose the cultural continuity of good values.

Like in any family there were those in mine who were, well, slugs, when it came to good character. To a person they lived miserable anti-social lives, unhappy the majority of the time because they focused too much upon themselves. In my book there is nothing wrong with being good to your self. Just try to make the same good faith effort for others as you would yourself and your life is enriched!

For instance, I enjoy writing all these many blogs. It gives me a creative outlet for color, design and writing about anything and everything that interests me in this world of awesome wonders. Writing these blogs also gives me a chance to share with others as if these blogs were the ultimate social site of sharing! By sharing with others a person can enrich the lives of others while they enrich their own.

Then comes the Joy as was taught in previous generations. This kind of Joy has lain dormant for the past 25 years or so, drowned out by business greed and the drive to unbalanced excessive and financial only success. There are a lot of facets to the concept of success. Monetary wealth and accumulation is only a small part of the equation. This much power and large wealth requires the learning of real wisdom in order to not be destroyed by such power. I could get into what the ancient Kabbalists have to say about the power inherent in money and how to prepare for basically trying to grab a tiger by the tail but that would be another very long post! :)

Perhaps it's time for global society to rediscover some of the ancient wisdom of past societies, learning to appreciate the success of others as well as their own. Happiness can be an elusive creature to those who are calculating and refuse to dig deep into their hearts and offer up greater generosity to those around them. Generosity of spirit goes a long way to creating a much happier life!

Funny Dog Photo by Phil Romans @ flickr

Goethe at age 69 Image via Wikipedia

Quote

“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Money, History, Family, German language, Good faith, denny lyon, Arts, Kabbalah, Literature, Kids and Teens