A Quote by T. S. Eliot

Talent imitates, genius steals.

T. S. Eliot

Quote Topics

Genius Imitates Steals Talent

Quote Author

T. S. Eliot
American - Poet
September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965

Talent imitates, but genius steals.

T. S. Eliot

Talent borrows, genius steals!

Oscar Wilde

Talent warms-up the given (as they say in cookery) and makes it apparent; genius brings something new. But our time lets talent pass for genius. They want to abolish the genius, deify the genius, and let talent forge ahead.

Soren Kierkegaard

Genius is talent provided with ideals. Genius starves while talent wears purple and fine linen. The man of genius of today will infifty years' time be in most cases no more than a man of talent.

W. Somerset Maugham

The difference between talent and genius is in the direction of the current: in genius, it is from within outward; in talent from without inward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain.

Edwin Percy Whipple

The immature artist imitates. The mature artist steals.

Lionel Trilling

A big talent steals, a small talent borrows.

Anthony Quinn

Talent wears well, genius wears itself out; talent drives a snug brougham in fact; genius, a sun-chariot in fancy.

Ouida

He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.

Plato

the distinction between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines and uses; genius combines and creates.

Anna Brownell Jameson

I think all writers have a bit of genius in them, and a bit of talent. Genius retreats but talent improves.

Martin Amis

It is not because the touch of genius has roused genius to production, but because the admiration of genius has made talent ambitious, that the harvest is still so abundant.