The only success worth one's powder was success in the line of one's idiosyncrasy... what was talent but the art of being completely whatever one happened to be?
Henry James

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
Joseph Addison

Art depends on luck and talent.
Francis Ford Coppola

If Roger stopped right now and never won another match, to me he'd already be one of the greatest players to ever play the game. To me, he's the greatest all around talent that I've ever seen.
John McEnroe

The main thing to do is relax and let your talent do the work.
Charles Barkley

I'll tell you one thing, in what I do for a living, there's no substitute for experience. I don't care how much natural talent you may have... In the type of show I do, you can depend on surprises.
Bob Barker

There is nothing new in art except talent.
Anton Chekhov

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.
Anton Chekhov

Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.
Edgar Degas

It's like a novelist writing far out things. If it makes a point and makes sense, then people like to read that. But if it's off in left field and goes over the edge, you lose it. The same with musical talent, I think.
Johnny Cash

Talent is a gift which God has given us secretly, and which we reveal without perceiving it.
Charles de Montesquieu

Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott

You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.
Louisa May Alcott

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong

Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity that was at hand.
Bruce Barton

I can never do better than Fawlty Towers whatever I do. Now I very much want to teach young talent some rules of the game.
John Cleese

Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.
Nolan Ryan

In England, the profession of the law is that which seems to hold out the strongest attraction to talent, from the circumstance, that in it ability, coupled with exertion, even though unaided by patronage, cannot fail of obtaining reward.
Charles Babbage

The poverty from which I have suffered could be diagnosed as "Soho" poverty. It comes from having the airs and graces of a genius and no talent.
Quentin Crisp