Talent Quotes

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Genius does what it must, talent does what it can.

Robert Bulwer Lytton

Clever men will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness; every authority rouses their ridicule, every superstition amuses them, every convention moves them to contradiction. Only force finds favor in their eyes, and they have no toleration for anything that is not purely natural and spontaneous. And yet ten clever men are not worth one man of talent, nor ten men of talent worth one man of genius. And in the individual, feeling is more than cleverness, reason is worth as much as feeling, and conscience has it over reason. If, then, the clever man is not mockable, he may at least be neither loved, nor considered, nor esteemed. He may make himself feared, it is true, and force others to respect his independence; but this negative advantage, which is the result of a negative superiority, brings no happiness with it. Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Henri-Frdric Amiel

If I have any talent at all, it is not for doing but for being.

Quentin Crisp

France always has plenty men of talent, but it is always deficient in men of action and high character.

Napoleon

...talent and genius operate outside the rules, and theory conflicts with practice.

Carl von Clausewitz

We are always anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner that works and brings it out.

Lady Marguerite Blessington

Consequently the student who is devoid of talent will derive no more profit from this work than barren soil from a treatise on agriculture.

Quintilian

Each man has his own vocation; his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

And while national military forces have historically resisted the full participation of women soldiers, female talent has found plenty of scope in revolutionary and terrorist groups around the planet.

Katherine Dunn

Most people would say the talent level is not what it's been at Kentucky. But they continue to have great years.

Eddie Fogler

As no one can adventure nearer the throne of God by virtue of his rank, his wealth, or his talent, so no one is kept farther from that throne by his low condition, or by his poverty of wealth, of learning, or of intellect. The prince and the sage are not more welcome to heaven than the poor and ignorant.

Albert Barnes

The primary function of a theater is not to please itself, or even to please its audience. It is to serve talent.

Robert Brustein

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.

Albert Einstein