Quotes About Talent

Being an anti-capitalist and hence being able to blame capitalism—often known more simply as "the system"—for any failure I might encounter through my own lack of talent or absence of energy not only provided me with a fine fallback position, but permitted me to view anyone who labored at a workaday job in the system with a rather lofty contempt.

I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition. (Said to Leopold Mozart)

I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son (W A Mozart)is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition.

Gold was not sure of many things, but he was definite about one: for every successful person he knew, he could name at least two others of greater ability, better, and higher intelligence who, by comparison, had failed.

Appleby was as good at shooting crap as he was at playing Ping-Pong, and he was as good at playing Ping-Pong as he was at everything else. Everything Appleby did, he did well. Appleby was a fair-haired boy from Iowa who believed in God, Motherhood, and the American Way of Life, without ever thinking about any of them, and everybody who knew him liked him. I hate that son of a bitch, Yossarian growled.

It takes brains not to make money," Colonel Cargill wrote in one of the homiletic memoranda he regularly prepared for circulation over General Peckem's signature. "Any fool can make money these days and most of them do. But what about people with talent and brains? Name, for example, one poet who makes money.

The soldier who saw everything twice nodded weakly and sank back on his bed. Yossarian nodded weakly too, eyeing his talented roommate with great humility and admiration. He knew he was in the presence of a master. His talented roommate was obviously a person to be studied and emulated. During the night, his talented roommate died, and Yossarian decided that he had followed him far enough.

Gold was not sure of many things,but he was definite about one: for every successful person he knew,he could name at least two of greater ability,better character, and higher intelligence who, by comparison, had failed

the land of opportunity, where credentials mattered less than demonstrated ability.

Not only was he a thoroughly marginal player within Virginia's cast of stars, he lacked precisely those qualities that the members of Congress considered most essential. His most glaring deficiency was the talent most valued in Philadelphia: He could not speak in public.

Wealth is your idea, desire, talent, urge for service, capacity to give to mankind, your ability for usefulness to society, and your love for humanity in general.

The majority do not desire the world—knowing on some primitive level that it disappoints. They are quite content to let the blind few pursue their path to wisdom. And to watch those trapped by genius forced to sacrifice themselves, and those trapped by talent to emulate them. Much better to be in the audience, watching the actors find the surprise ending.

The Playwright had long been fascinated by the strange mercurial personality of the Actor. What is acting. and why do we respond to great acting as we do? We know that an actor is acting and yet - we wish to forget that an actor is acting, and in the presence of talented actors we quickly do forget. This is a mystery, a riddle. How can we forget the actor acts? Is the actor acting on our behalf? Is the subtext of the actor's acting always and forever our own buried (and denied) acting?

I have no talent, no gift. I have the panting ardor of a workhorse. Yet in time even a workhorse wears out.

The secret is to scale one's ambitions precisely to fit one's talent, Mr Lesnovich told Enid. His manner as always was grave, vaguely censorious. That is the key to happiness.

Muchas personas tienen talento pero no se molestan en formar buenos hábitos. No se disciplinan a sí mismas para hacer lo que saben que deberían hacer, sino en cambio esperan a ser movidas por alguna fuerza exterior.

That's the greatest thing about comedy. If you've got talent, it's unmistakable. No one misses it and you don't have to wait around for a break. It's very easy to get a break. It's very hard to be good enough.

Mabel Rose Chen was a perfect daughter. She knew this because everybody said it. ... The thing about being a perfect daughter was that nobody suspected you might not be so perfect. That maybe you were fascinated by the fact that you belonged to this powerful family, and maybe you weren't so great at violin or tennis or French, but you were very, very good at spying.

I think that if you have a talent for acting, it is the talent for listening." — Morgan Freeman

All too often, it is audacity and not talent that moves an artist to center stage.

caricaturists and rodeo clowns be included in that special group of gifted performers?

Every man comes into the world with a predisposition to grow along certain lines, and growth is easier for him along those lines than in any other way.

Genius is Omniscience flowing into man. Genius is more than talent.

And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while other who have very little talent get rich.