Geniuses

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

(Apple Computers)

Genius. What a wonderful word! Just pronounce it- does it make you feel more powerful? But what is a genius, its raison d'etre, the causes of its excessive rarity? Is it indeed "a gift of Heaven"? And if so, why such gifts to one, and dullness of intellect, or even idiocy, the doom of another? To regard the appearance of men and women of genius as a mere accident, a prize of blind chance, or, as dependent on physical causes alone, is only thinkable to a materialist. Coleridge defined genius as "the faculty of growth"; yet it is a question whether it is genius (an abnormal aptitude of mind) that develops and grows, or the physical brain, its vehicle, which becomes through some mysterious process fitter to receive and manifest the innate and divine nature of man's over-soul. Perchance, in their unsophisticated wisdom, the philosophers of old were nearer truth than are the modern ones, when they endowed man with a tutelary deity, a Spirit whom they called genius. The substance of this entity, to say nothing of its essence (observe the distinction), and the presence of both, manifests itself according to the organism of the person it informs. As Shakespeare says of the genius of a great man, "what we perceive of his substance 'is not here'".

I find it very interesting to analyze the obscure concept of genius in the view of different famous people. From Elbert Hubbard's "Genius is the ability to act rightly without precedent - the power to do the right thing the first time." to Gertrude Stein's "It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.", I've decided to dissect opinions and add some of my own.

Have you ever heard the collocation "mad scientist"? There are TV shows named "The Mad Scientist". So why not find out more about this genre of people? I wanted to determine those particularities that make the difference between an ordinary man and a genius. Maybe we can learn how to become geniuses.

I sure am charmed by them- especially by three of them, from different areas of activity.

The first is the founder of the so called theory of relativity, a theory that was to change forever the way we look on physics: Albert Einstein. He wasn't just a brilliant mind, but also a militant for peace, for he saw the danger that threatened mankind in the form of nuclear energy, during World War II. Reading about Einstein's personality and achievements made me want to study physics (and I think it has the same effect on many people). The second, Salvador Dali, is the most popular surrealist painter, although surrealism was inaugurated by Andre Breton. Is it his originality that makes you want to hang on your wall a calendar with his art so you could stare at one picture for a whole month? Or is it his eccentric personality, his nonconformist attitude? I like everything related to him. Last, but not least is Oscar Wilde, the one who said to the custom "I have nothing to declare but my genius" (or didn't he? you will find out the truth about Oscar Wilde).Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think- I guess Oscar Wilde fits better in the second category.

I think of a genius as a man with superpowers. And