Because of Elon Musk’s success as an entrepreneur, businessman, techie, and his acumen for creativity, some people think he is a genius. When it comes to non-career politician Donald Trump, many people feel his ability to keep political opponents off guard is pure genius. Maybe they are geniuses. Maybe they are mad. Maybe they aren’t.

“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.” — Aristotle*

“When a true Genius appears in the World, you may know him by this infallible Sign; that the Dunces are all in Confederacy against him.” — Jonathan Swift**

“I do not know, unless it is malice; upon the general principle that when a man attains a high position people are always found to carp at him and endeavor to pull him down.” — Dan Butterfield***

*(Attributed to Aristotle in Seneca the Younger, “On Tranquility of Mind [De Tranquillitate Animi]” (17.10) (c. AD 60). (Source (Latin)). This quotation as such is not found in surviving Aristotle. It may either represent something from Aristotle that has been lost since Seneca, or else Seneca fabricating a quote, quoting something spurious, or paraphrasing something Aristotle did write, e.g., his comments about madness/melancholy and poets/prominent talents (here and here). See also the Pseudo-Aristotle, “Problemata,” Book 30, ch. 1) (https://wist.info/aristotle/1343)

**(Swift, Jonathan. Various Thoughts, Moral and Diverting (a.k.a. Thoughts on Various Subjects), Written October 1, 1706; included in his Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, The First Edition, Printed for John Morphew, near Stationer’s-Hall, 1711.)

***(General Dan Butterfield to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War in 1864 – regarding the source of allegations General Joe Hooker was drunk at Chancellorsville.)