A Quote by Marcus Aurelius

Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely. — © Marcus Aurelius
Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.
Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.
I have often been surprised that Mathematics, the quintessence of Truth, should have found admirers so few and so languid. Frequent consideration and minute scrutiny have at length unravelled the cause: viz . that though Reason is feasted, Imagination is starved; whilst Reason is luxuriating in its proper Paradise, Imagination is wearily travelling on a dreary desert.
Understanding government can be a complex business. The stated reason for a policy and the real reason for it are rarely the same.
When we find ourselves unable to reason (as one often does when presented with, say, a problem in algebra) it is because our imagination is not touched. One can begin to reason only when a clear picture has been formed in the imagination. Bad teaching is teaching which presents an endless procession of meaningless signs, words and rules, and fails to arouse the imagination.
A man of genius is not a man who sees more than other men do. On the contrary, it is very often found that he is absentminded andobserves much less than other people.... Why is it that the public have such an exaggerated respect for him--after he is dead? The reason is that the man of genius understands the importance of the few things he sees.
Understanding someone, and loving him despite that understanding, is a trait more often found in angels than in mankind.
The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.
Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.
Genius is only a greater aptitude for patience.
Theories of genius are the peculiar constructions of our own philosophical times; ages of genius had passed away, and they left no other record than their works; no preconcerted theory described the workings of the imagination to be without imagination, nor did they venture to teach how to invent invention.
When we talk about novels, we don't often talk about imagination. Why not? Does it seem too first grade? In reviews, you read about limpid prose, about the faithful reproduction of consciousness, about moral heft, but rarely about the power of pure, unadulterated imagination.
Genius consists of equal parts of natural aptitude and hard work.
A formal and orderly conception of the whole is rarely present, perhaps even rarely possible, except to a few men of exceptional genius.
Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
To me this world is all one continued vision of fancy or imagination, and I feel flattered when I am told so. What is it sets Homer, Virgil and Milton in so high a rank of art? Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because they are addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and but immediately to the understanding or reason?
Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright.
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