‘Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. With people with only modest ability, modesty is mere honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it is hypocrisy.’
— Arthur Schopenhauer
‘Talent isn’t genius and no amount of energy can make it so.’
— 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
‘Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius.’
— Henri-Frédéric Amiel
‘Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature.’
— Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
‘Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.’
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
‘Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.’
— Arthur Conan Doyle
‘Talent is the capacity of doing anything that depends on application and industry; it is a voluntary power, while genius is involuntary.’
— William Hazlitt
‘The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.’
— Oliver Wendell Holmes
‘Sometimes, indeed, there is such a discrepancy between the genius and his human qualities that one has to ask oneself whether a little less talent might not have been better.’
— Carl Gustav Jung
‘Talent is that which is in man’s power. Genius is that whose power a man is.’
— James Russell Lowell
‘Genius does what it must and talent does what it can.’
— Edward Robert Bullwer-Lytton
‘Talent is full of thoughts, Genius is thought. Talent is a cistern, Genius a fountain.’
— Edwin Percy Whipple
‘Talent jogs to conclusions to which Genius takes giant leaps.’
— Edwin Percy Whipple
‘I have put my genius into my life; all I’ve put into my work is my talent.’
— Oscar Wilde
William Dare 