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.
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.
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.
Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain.
Talent wears well, genius wears itself out; talent drives a snug brougham in fact; genius, a sun-chariot in fancy.
the distinction between talent and genius is definite. Talent combines and uses; genius combines and creates.
I think all writers have a bit of genius in them, and a bit of talent. Genius retreats but talent improves.
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.
Talent without genius isn't much, but genius without talent is nothing whatsoever.
Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man. Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can.
Genius discovers a system; average talent stereotypes it till it is shattered by fresh genius.
I intend to work for this dance of the future. I do not know whether I have the necessary qualities; I may have neither genius nor talent nor temperament. But I know that I have a Will; and will and energy sometimes prove greater than either genius or talent or temperament.
It is often said that in Ireland there is an excess of genius unsustained by talent; but there is talent in the tongues.
God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius.
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
...That genius is a rare exception (:) It's not true. Talent and genius have been wasted on enormous scale throughout our history; this is all I know for sure.