# Quotes about talent - Quotes: 13 - Authors: 8 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent ## Quotes > (Of Shakespeare) A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery (243) [James Joyce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce.md) · [Ulysses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/of-shakespeare-a-man.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md) > Bosh! Stephen said rudely. A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery. [James Joyce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce.md) · [Ulysses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/bosh-stephen-said.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [mistakes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mistakes.md) > His own image to a man with that queer thing genius is the standard of all experience, material and moral. [James Joyce](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce.md) · [Ulysses](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/his-own-image.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > Alike in the highest regions of speculation and in the smaller practical concerns of daily life, her mind was the same perfect instrument, piercing to the very heart and marrow of the matter; always seizing the essential idea or principle. The same exactness and rapidity of operation, pervading as it did her sensitive as well as her mental faculties, would, with her gifts of feeling and imagination, have fitted her to be a consummate artist, as her fiery and tender soul and her vigorous eloquence would certainly have made her a great orator, and her profound knowledge of human nature and discernment and sagacity in practical life, would, in the times when such a carrière was open to women, have made her eminent among the rulers of mankind. Her intellectual gifts did but minister to a moral character at once the noblest and the best balanced which I have ever met with in life. Autobiography · p. 186 Topics: [character](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/character.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow. Genius can only breathe freely in an atmosphere of freedom. On Liberty Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > If I had been by nature extremely quick of apprehension, or had possessed a very accurate and retentive memory or were of a remarkably active and energetic character, the trial would not be conclusive; but in all these natural gifts I am rather below than above par; what I could do, could assuredly be done by any boy or girl of average capacity and healthy physical constitution: and if I have accomplished anything, I owe it, among other fortunate circumstances, to the fact that through the early training bestowed on me by my father, I started, I may fairly say, with an advantage of a quarter of a century over my contemporaries. Autobiography · p. 30 Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > Why is it, I wonder, that anyone who displays superior athletic ability is an object of admiration to his classmates, while one who displays superior mental ability is an object of hatred? Is there some hidden understanding that it is brains, not muscles, that define the human being and that children who are not good at athletics are simply not good, while those who are not smart feel themselves to be subhuman? I don’t know. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-asimov/why-is-it-i-wonder.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > You won’t be an artist if you live a thousand years. You’re merely an expert, and you know it. Those who can—do, those who can’t—criticise. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 294 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/you-wont-be-an-artist.md) Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > The mathematician is born, not made. [Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/the-mathematician-is-born.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > Despite countless hours of practice, dozens of auditions, many artistic disputes, seven demo CDs, and two radical changes in hairstyle, Arrival never arrived. It wasn't that they were bad; it was just that, as they reluctantly came to understand, they really weren't anything special. They were competent. The problem was, there were competent bands everywhere. Competence wasn't the key to stardom; you needed something else. Whatever it was, Arrival didn't have it. (Chapter 3) [Dave Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry.md) · [Tricky Business](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/tricky-business.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/tricky-business/despite-countless-hours.md) Topics: [success and failure](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > I have, over the years, received in the mail approximately 17 million manuscripts from people whose goal is to become professional writers. They want me to discover them, encourage them, mentor them, find them an agent, etc. Some of these people have talent; some of them have actually become professional writers. But a great many of them will never become professional writers, because- follow me closely here- they are not good at writing. Of course I don't tell them that. Probably nobody will ever tell them that. They will continue to try and fail, and in the end they'll be bitter, like the early-round contestants on American Idol who think they got booted because Simon Cowell is mean, rather than because their singing sounds like a bull being castrated with a hockey stick. These contestants humiliated themselves on national TV because when they were growing up, loving to sing, always singing around the house, no thoughtful family member or caring friend ever had the kindness to put a hand on their shoulder and say, in a gentle and loving voice, "You suck." They needed Simon Cowells, but instead they were surrounded by Randy Jacksons and Paula Abduls, trying to be nice, not wanting to hurt their feelings, and thus setting them up for failure. [Dave Barry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry.md) · [I'll Mature When I'm Dead](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/ill-mature-when-im-dead.md) · p. 240 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dave-barry/ill-mature-when-im-dead/i-have-over.md) Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [honesty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty.md) > But the greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances. [Aristotle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle.md) · [Poetics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aristotle/poetics/but-the-greatest.md) Topics: [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md) > You see, lots of the real people can't do it at all: they're such fools that they think style comes by nature to people in their position; and so they never learn. There's always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Pygmalion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/pygmalion/you-see-lots.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md)