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Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man;
Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can.
Blot out my name, that the spirits of Shakespeare and Milton and Burns
Look not down on the praises of fools with a pity my soul yet spurns.

— Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: using the pseudonym "Owen Meredith", in "Last Words" published in Cornhill Magazine (November 1860), p. 516
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

In life there are meetings which seem
Like a fate.

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Who knows nothing base
Fears nothing known.

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As pure as a pearl,
And as perfect: a noble and innocent girl.

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Who seeks for aid
Must show how service sought can be repaid.

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There is purpose in pain,
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Do not think that years leave us and find us the same!

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Only by knowledge of that which is not thyself, shall thyself be learned.

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Topics

Intelligence

More quotes by Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton

Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can.

Chronicles and Characters (1868)

There is a pleasure which is born of pain.

The Wanderer (1859)

Those true eyes
Too pure and too honest in aught to disguise
The sweet soul shining through them.

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O be very sure
That no man will learn anything at all,
Unless he first will learn humility.

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That man is great, and he alone,
Who serves a greatness not his own.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.