OK the man has a small gift for oratory but in general he just sound like a pocket-philosophy-quotes-book to me: and that really is the not so thin line between genius and insanity. Genius comes up with shocking coherent ideas from a new angle while an insane person comes up just with shocking ideas from a new angle.

I think the Guy early on came up with this idea of himself as an outsider-martyr and that so fueled his ego that he couldn't come of it through the trial (something that most likely would have saved him from being sentenced) and that doesn't sound ingenious to me

He appeals to the visually oriented with his behavior and looks and is quite charismatic but so is Kate Moss. I wouldn't call her brilliant except in a visual sense

Charles Manson is insane, not brilliant. In the quotes you shared with us and exhibited there is no brilliance whatsoever. The man is a narcissist beyond belief and therefore believes he's a charismatic. He drew no one near to him that wasn't also an insane malcontent. Bigotty, bobitty, boobitty...the man is quite insane.

From what I've read about Charles Manson (and I've read quite a lot), I think he's absolutely brilliant. His testimony is astonishingly insightful and interviews with him are, in a word, "deep."

"I am only what lives inside each and every one of you."

I don't think he's insane, although he rightly may be, and there's quite a lot of evidence that he is. There's a fine line between insanity and brilliance, as someone commented on my evolution debate.

"I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in."

Charles Manson didn't kill anybody, although he may have malevolent will. But while perhaps he shouldn't be released onto society, the way his mind works is incredible.

"Let’s go back to that word ‘innocent.’ Are you so white and pure?"

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/manson/mansontestimony-m.html

"Look down at me and you see a fool; look up at me and you see a god; look straight at me and you see yourself."

Manson should not be alive he is a case in which the Death Penalty should be allowed.