Some weeks ago, I was in Ft. Myers,
Florida. While there, I had the opportunity to visit Thomas Edison's
Winter Home and Museum a day before the 156th anniversary
of his birth. The site is officially named the Edison & Ford
Winter Estates because the winter homes of both men are there. Henry
Ford was a protege of Edison and the two men maintained a lifelong
friendship – which included having winter homes on adjoining plots
of land in Ft. Myers. The gardens and the estates are beautiful in
themselves but the Museum is what really gives you pause to think.
Edison's inventions fill room after room. His interests,
contributions and inventions celebrated there include those that
most of us are aware of - the light bulb, the phonograph, early movie
making equipment, telegraphy innovations, batteries, electricity
distribution – and some that I, at least, was ignorant of –
for example, his botanical experiments aimed at finding a
rubber-producing plant that could thrive in the United States and an "electrographic vote recorder". Thomas
Edison was granted a total of 1093 patents and the impact of much of
his work reverberates globally today. (See the Thomas Edison patent web-page in the inventors section of the about.com website for the complete list.)
Edison was also an accomplished
businessman. His Edison Illuminating Company, the prototype for
other electricty distribution companies, began supplying electricity
to a one-square mile of Lower Manhattan in 1882. It later merged
with other power companies to become what eventually was named
Consolidated Edison, one of the largest enrgy companies in the US.
Okay, that one was obvious...but he also was instrumental in the
formation of General Electric, which in its earliest days was the
Edison General Electric Company.
What gives rise to such practical
genius? We've all heard Edison's “one percent inspiration and
ninety-nine percent perspiration” definition of genius. Granted
perseverance to follow an idea through to a successful conclusion is
an essential element of discovery. But I suspect there is more to it
than that. Imagination and creativity, intelligence and talent,
knowledge and openness to new ideas an understanding of current
needs and a foresight of future possibilities – these surely have a
role.
Also, what is it about today's
situation that makes men of political genius so rare? At a time when
insight and boldness are needed, demagoguery and spinelessness rule
the day. Are our problems so complex or are we prevented from
solving them by the know-nothing's and fear-mongers? Charlie Chaplin had this pessimistic observation: “Man as an individual is a
genius. But men in the mass form the headless monster, a great,
brutish idiot that goes where prodded.”
But let's leave on an upbeat note.
Here are ten other quotes on genius by people through the ages:
“Genius is eternal patience.” -
Michaelangelo
“When a true genius appears, you can
know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy
against him.” - Jonathan Swift
“Talent hits a target no one else can
hit; Genius sees a target no one else can see.” -Arthur
Schopenhauer
“God gives talent. Work transforms
talent into genius.” - Anna Pavlova
“The secret of genius is to carry the
spirit of the child into old age.” - Aldous Huxley
“The man of genius inspires us with a
boundless confidence in our own powers.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The essence of genius is to know
what to overlook.” - William James
“Neither a lofty degree of
intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of
genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.” - Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart
“Towering genius disdains a beaten
path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.” - Abraham Lincoln
“To see things in the seed. That is
genius.” - Lao Tzu
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