quotations about talent
Talent is a tenant in the house owned by genius.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Many times we take our talents for granted. We think because we can do something well, anyone can. Often that's not true. How can you tell when you're overlooking a skill or talent? Listen to what others say. Your strengths will capture the attention of others and draw them to you. On the other hand, when you're working in areas of weakness, few people will show interest. If others are continually praising you in a particular area, start developing it.
JOHN C. MAXWELL
Leadership Gold
Ordinary people think that talent must be always on its own level and that it arises every morning like the sun, rested and refreshed, ready to draw from the same storehouse--always open, always full, always abundant--new treasures that it will heap up on those of the day before; such people are unaware that, as in the case of all mortal things, talent has its increase and decrease, and that independently of the career it takes, like everything that breathes ... it undergoes all the accidents of health, of sickness, and of the dispositions of the soul--its gaiety or its sadness.... As with our perishable flesh ... talent is obliged constantly to keep guard over itself, to combat, and to keep perpetually on the alert amid the obstacles that witness the exercise of its singular power.
EUGENE DELACROIX
The Journal of Eugene Delacroix
Mediocre ability, well developed and properly planted, will produce a larger tree of success than will extraordinary ability, scattered or uncared for.
NATHANIEL CLARK FOWLER
Getting a Start
It is a great talent for a ruler to use the talents of men as though he possessed them.
DUKE OF TSIN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Not he deserves praise that has talents, but he that uses them.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.
THOMAS WOLFE
The Web and the Rock
Talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
STEPHEN KING
Danse Macabre
Sure, the home-field is an advantage -- but so is having a lot of talent.
DAN MARINO
attributed, Gentlemen, This is a Football
However you make your living is where your talent lies.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro"
There was never an unused talent rolled up in a handkerchief yet, but when it was taken out and put into the scales, it was lighter than when it was committed to the keeping of the earth.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
ROBERT BENCHLEY
attributed, Book of Humorous Quotations
Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force.
STEPHEN KING
Danse Macabre
Access to talented and creative people is to modern business what access to coal and iron ore was to steel-making.
RICHARD FLORIDA
attributed, The Talent Mandate
Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.
ERICA JONG
New York Quarterly, No. 16, 1974
Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work.
AMOL SARVA
"Talent Is a Myth", Huffington Post, May 3, 2015
Talent must be viewed as the most indispensable ingredient for success, but success also depends on how that talent is managed.
ALLAN SCHWEYER
Talent Management Systems
If talent without persistence is a tragedy ... persistence without talent is a comedy. And, boy, is it a painful one.
JAMES PONIEWOZIK
"In 'Haters Back Off!' a Cringe-Worthy Star Is Born", New York Times, October 13, 2016
We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.
ERIC HOFFER
The Passionate State of Mind
The truth is that all of us attain the greatest success and happiness possible whenever we use our native capacities to their greatest extent.
SMILEY BLANTON
Love or Perish