The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
Eric Weiner
Top 10 Best Quotes
“The story of the world is not the story of coups and revolutions. It is the story of lost keys and burnt coffee and a sleeping child in your arms. History is the untallied sum of a million everyday moments.”
“What is honored in a country will be cultivated there.”
“Geniuses are always marginalized to one degree or another. Someone wholly invested in the status quo is unlikely to disrupt it.”
“All genuinely creative ideas are initially met with rejection, since they necessarily threaten the status quo. An enthusiastic reception for a new idea is a sure sign that it is not original.”
“Just as not all butterflies produce a hurricane, not all outbreaks of bubonic plague produce a Renaissance.”
“If you’ve ever had a rational thought or asked Why? or gazed at the night sky in silent wonder, then you have had a Greek moment.”
“Nothing kills creativity faster than a wall.”
“Studies have found that creative people have an especially high tolerance for ambiguity. I suspect this holds true for places of genius as well. Cities such as Athens and Florence and Edinburgh created atmospheres that accepted, and even celebrated, ambiguity.”
“Civic life, though, was not optional, and Aristotle tells me the Athenians had a word for those who refused to participate in public affairs: idiotes. It is where we get our word idiot.”
“This less-is-more phenomenon holds true not only for individuals but for entire nations. A good example is the “oil curse,” also known as the paradox of plenty. Nations rich in natural resources, especially oil, tend to stagnate culturally and intellectually, as even a brief visit to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait reveals. The citizens of these nations have everything so they create nothing. China”
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Book Keywords:
ideas, bubonic-plague, yersinia-pestis, geography, revolutionary, creativity, originality, disruption, renaissance, rejection, genius, butterflies, marginalization, hurricane, status-quo, walls
