Quotes About Talent

The most salient feature of the statement is its categorical rejection of the idea that there is any wide disparity among people in their innate ability to master science. A blithe egalitarianism reigns. Any attempt to confront this pipe dream with an "elitist" view of the spectrum of talent would be rejected with pious horror.

However, I learned something. I thought that if the young person, the student, has poetry in him or her, to offer them help is like offering a propeller to a bird.

If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.

Drama is not a genre for infant prodigies: I can't think of a dramatist who made a major reputation as early as, say, Keats or Rimbaud in lyric poetry.

My relative examined you, observed a few of your normal body cells, compared them with what it had learned from other humans most like you, and said that you had not only a cancer, but a talent for cancer.

Your people contain incredible potential, but they die without using much of it.

As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent.

What do you plan to do that others cannot do better?

A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!

Jon Stewart hires people that he thinks are funny. That's it. That's the only requirement.

It is possible in this world to be pretty and funny and successful all at the same time.

Rousseaux was considered the pope of book critics, and reading L'Etranger made him reflect: "It seems that the crisis of the novel gets a little worse every day. Young novelists' debuts do not just mostly reveal mediocre talents.

Glory is a heavy burden, a murdering poison, and to bear it is an art. And to have that art is rare.

What a great discrepancy there is between men and the results they achieve! It is due to the difference in their power of calling together all the rays of their ability, and concentrating them upon one point

Superiority -- doing things a little better than anybody else can do them.

The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.

Most people overestimate others' talents and underestimate their own.

Do you have the talent?' is rarely the question. 'Do you have the guts to finish?' is the real question.

Few lack talent, but most people lack the vision & perseverance to develop their talents.

If talent is the floor and character the ceiling, then work-ethic is the altitude of personal achievement.

It would seem that the more irresponsible and crafty one is, the more likely one is to have a talent for storytelling.

If all you've got is just enough talent to get along, sooner or later you'll betray yourself.

The best clay to shape your life is your character not the the talent.