Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire.
—Bernard Williams
We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
—Mark Twain
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.
—Jules Renard
Talent works, genius creates.
—Robert Schumann
I have spent a good many years… being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all.
—Stephen King
I am no more humble than my talents require.
—Oscar Levant
Art depends on luck and talent.
—Francis Ford Coppola
Put yourself on view. This brings your talents to light.
—Baltasar Gracián
Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?
—Benjamin Franklin
If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke.
—Brendan Francis
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
—Erica Jong
It doesn't pay to be good at something unless you are the absolute best at it.
—Mark Twain
Toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other.
—Arthur Conan Doyle
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed.
—Unknown