A man with a talent does what is expected of him, makes his way, constructs, is an engineer, a composer, a builder of bridges. It’s the natural order of things that he construct objects outside himself and his family. The woman who does so is aberrant. We have to expiate for this cursed talent someone handed out to us, by mistake, in the black mystery of genetics.
—May Sarton (1912–95) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Novelist
The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason and imagination, rarely or never.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
If you have this enormous talent, it’s got you by the balls, it’s a demon. You can’t be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn’t that nice a guy.
—Dustin Hoffman (b.1937) American Actor, TV Personality, Theater Personality
Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner who works and brings it out.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
Talent does you no good unless it’s recognized by someone else.
—Robert Half
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Getting ahead in a difficult profession — singing, acting, writing, whatever — requires avid faith in yourself. You must be able to sustain yourself against staggering blows and unfair reversals. When I think back to those first couple of years in Rome, those endless rejections, without a glimmer of encouragement from anyone, all those failed screen tests, and yet I never let my desire slide away from me, my belief in myself and what I felt I could achieve
—Sophia Loren (b.1934) Italian Actor
Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
—Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French Painter, Sculpture, Printer maker, Artist
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Great talents, such as honor, virtue, learning, and parts, are above the generality of the world, who neither possess them themselves, nor judge of them rightly in others; but all people are judges of the lesser talents, such as civility, affability, and an obliging, agreeable address and manner, because they feel the good effects of them, as making society easy and pleasing.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The most exciting place to discover talent is in yourself.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
I believe that traditional wisdom is incomplete. A composer can have all the talent of Mozart and a passionate desire to succeed, but if he believes he cannot compose music, he will come to nothing. He will not try hard enough. He will give up too soon when the elusive right melody takes too long to materialize.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
If, after all, men cannot always make history have a meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation.
—Constantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–62) American Actor, Model, Singer
Premature development of the powers of both mind and body leads to an early grave.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Technique is the test of sincerity. If a thing isn’t worth getting the technique to say, it is of inferior value.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Execution is really the critical part of a successful strategy. Getting it done, getting it done right, getting it done better than the next person is far more important than dreaming up new visions of the future. All of the great companies in the world out-execute their competitors day in and day out in the marketplace, in their manufacturing plants, in their logistics, in their inventory turns—in just about everything they do. Rarely do great companies have a proprietary position that insulates them from the constant hand-to-hand combat of competition.
—Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (b.1942) American Businessman
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.
—Larry Bird (b.1956) American Sportsperson
Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but will to labor. I believe that labor judiciously and continuously applied becomes genius.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
It is in the ability to deceive oneself that the greatest talent is shown.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle – that of obedience to their superiors.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, you just touch it up once in a while.
—Pearl Bailey (1918–1990) American Jazz Singer, Actress, Writer
The truth is that all of us attain the greatest success and happiness possible in this life whenever we use our native capacities to their greatest extent.
—Smiley Blanton
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Writer
It always seemed to me a sort of clever stupidity only to have one sort of talent — like a carrier-pigeon.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist