Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.
— Robert Greene
Craziest Talent And Genius quotations

... it is not the color of the skin that makes the man or the woman, but the principle formed in the soul. Brilliant wit will shine, come from whence it will; and genius and talent will not hide the brightness of its lustre.
Conceit spoils the finest genius?and the great charm of all power is modesty.

There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Religion itself is without genius. There is no religious genius and no one would be permitted to distinguish between the talented and the untalented in religion.
The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of childhood into maturity.

Each of us is born brilliant. Then we spend the rest of our lives having our brilliance buried by people, circumstances, and experiences. Eventually, we forget that we ever had genius and special talents, and our brilliance is locked away in a vault deep within. So we settle for who we are, instead of striving for who we were meant to be.
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.
Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work. Genius is its own end, and draws its means and the style of its architecture from within.

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
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.

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.
Classical education has deformed everything, and has imposed upon us as geniuses men of correct, facile talent, who follow the beaten track.
It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.

A person with average talent, ambition and education, can outstrip a genius in society, if that person has focused goals.
By and large, talent is in such short supply that mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.
Genius is the gold in the mine, talent is the miner who works and brings it out.

There's a perceived inverse relation between looks and talent.
Look at Charlize Theron - she made herself ugly for 'Monster' and suddenly everyone said 'she's a genius.' It shouldn't be like that.
Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner who works and brings it out.
There is the same difference between talent and genius that there is between a stone mason and a sculptor

Genius is a bend in the creek where bright water has gathered, and which mirrors the trees, the sky and the banks. It just does that because it is there and the scenery is there. Talent is a fine mirror with a silver frame, with the name of the owner engraved on the back.
Will and energy sometimes prove greater than either genius or talent or temperament.
An average person with average talents and ambition and average education, can outstrip the most brilliant genius in our society, if that person has clear, focused goals.

We must have recourse to the rules of music when our genius and our ear seem to deny what we are seeking.
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.
Talent, will and genius are natural phenomena like the lake, the volcano, the mountain, the wind, the star, the cloud.

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.
If, by chance, someone among those men of extraordinary talent is found who has firmness of soul and who refuses to yield to the genius of his age and to debase himself with childish works, woe unto him! He will die in poverty and oblivion.
He whose genius appears deepest and truest excels his fellows in nothing save the knack of expression; he throws out occasionally a lucky hint at truths of which every human soul is profoundly though unutterably conscious.

Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
probably the greatest concentration of talent and genius in this house except for perhaps those times when Thomas Jefferson ate alone.
In Mozart and Salieri we see the contrast between the genius which does what it must and the talent which does what it can.
The true genius shudders at incompleteness.
Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.