The Greatest

Geniuses Of

All Time

The categories we determined upon are as follows:
Dominance in Field;
Active Longevity;
Polymathy and Versatility;
Strength and Energy;
IQ;
On-Going Influence;
Prolificness and Achievement of Prime Goal.

In each of these categories we have awarded a range of 0 to 100 points, where even a 0, because it is a ranking relating specifically to the 100 Top Geniuses, would indicate, in relation to everyone else, a very high score.

We established three further bonus categories, namely Universality of Vision (bonus of 15), Outstanding originality (bonus of 10) and a deliberate desire to create Teaching Avenues or Academies to further the genius’s ideas (bonus of 10). The grand total available is a maximum of 835 possible points. The Active Longevity category required special attention.

Those geniuses who managed their personal physiques to the maximum to ensure the widest possible time span for the accomplishment of their life’s visions deserved extra credit. However, so as not to overweight this category, we established this scale: a range of 16 points from youngest to eldest rewards those who ‘hung in’ and does not penalise those who died early; on our chart, death between the ages of 33 and 36 scores 84/100, death between the ages of 57 and 60 scores 90.

Ranking Score

1 Leonardo da Vinci 822
2 William Shakespeare 818
3 Great Pyramid Builders 817
4 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 816
5 Michaelangelo 814
6 Sir Isaac Newton 810
7 Thomas Jefferson 809
8 Alexander the Great 808
9 Phidias 808
10 Albert Einstein 804
11 Thomas Ava Edison 799
12 Homer 797
13 Plato 797
14 Euclid 795
15 Elizabeth 1 795
16 Archimedes 790
17 Aristotle 798
18 Filippo Brunelleschi 788
19 Andrew Carnegie 785
20 1st Ch’in Emperor 783
21 Sinan 782
22 Nicolas Copernicus 780
23 Ludwig van Beethoven 779
24 Pablo Picasso 777
25 Leon Battista Alberti 777
26 Ivan Pavlov 776
27 Michael Faraday 776
28 Igor Stravnsky 772
29 Benjamin Franklin 770
30 Charles Darwin 769
31 Sophocles 784
32 Muhammad Ali 763
33 Vyasa 756
34 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 755
35 Alexander Graham Bell 754
36 Salvador Dali 752
37 St Thomas Aquinas 750
38 Jorge Luis Borges 750
39 John Milton 746
40 Genghis Khan 744
41 Johnann Sebastian Bach 741
42 Walt Disney 740
43 Christopher Columbus 739
44 Ueshiba 739
45 Martha Graham 739
46 Marie Curie 738
47 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 737
48 Paul Cezanne 734
49 Guglielmo Marconi 733
50 Wilbur and Orville Wright 732

See Tony Buzan’s Book of Genius for the remainer of the Top 100 Published by Stanley Paul, London. ISBN 0091785510