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Talent Quotes

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Talent Quotes

“A man possessed of splendid talents, which he often abused, and of a sound judgment, the admonitions of which he often neglected; a man who succeeded only in an inferior department of his art, but who in that department succeeded pre-eminently.”

Men Art Sound Talent Judgment Abuse Department Possessed Inferiors Splendid Neglected Admonition Sound Judgment

Author:Thomas B. Macaulay

“What has God given you? Moses had a stick, David had a slingshot, and Paul had a pen. Mother Teresa possessed a love for the poor; Billy Graham, a gift for preaching; and Joni Eareckson Tada, a disability. What did they have in common? A willingness to let God use whatever they had, even when it didn't seem very useful. If you will assess what you have to offer in terms of your time, your treasure, and your talents, you will have a better understanding of how you might uniquely serve.”

Source: The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World

“Yesterday morning I amused myself with an exercise of a talent I once possessed, but have so neglected that my performance might almost be called an experiment. I cut out a dress for one of the women.”

Might Morning Cutting Talent Exercise Performances Dresses Yesterday Experiments Possessed Neglected Amused

Book:Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839

Source: Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839

“There is no talent so useful toward rising in the world, or which puts men more out of the reach of fortune, than that quality generally possessed by the dullest sort of men, and in common speech called discretion; a species of lower prudence, by the assistance of which, people of the meanest intellectuals, without any other qualification, pass through the world in great tranquillity, and with universal good treatment, neither giving nor taking offence.”

Source: The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: Containing Interesting and Valuable Papers, Not Hitherto Published ... With Memoir of the Author

“Complaisance, though in itself it be scarce reckoned in the number of moral virtues, is that which gives a lustre to every talent a man can be possessed of. It was Plato's advice to an unpolished writer that he should sacrifice to the graces. In the same manner I would advise every man of learning, who would not appear in the world a mere scholar or philosopher, to make himself master of the social virtue which I have here mentioned.”

Source: The Tatler and the Guardian: Complete in One Volume, with Notes, and a General Index

“Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can assume great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became “geniuses” (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct the parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it, because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.”

“We in Ireland are gifted beyond most peoples with a talent for acting, and in Dublin especially, while scorning culture, which indeed we have not got, we are possessed of a most futile and diverting cleverness.”

Culture Acting Talent Ireland Possessed Gifted Cleverness Dublin

Author:Susan Mitchell

“Philosophy can add to our happiness in no other manner but by diminishing our misery; it should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. Happy were we all born philosophers; all born with a talent of thus dissipating our own cares by spreading them upon all mankind.”

Should Philosophy Care Born Mankind Talent Increase Add Misery Philosopher Possessed Economist

Book:Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world

Source: Enquiry into the present state of polite learning. The citizen of the world

“I think that that's always been a real talent of mine is to be able to spot somebody who has that thing that is so non-definable, that thing that I wish I possessed.”

Thinking Real Able Wish Talent Mines Spots Possessed Real Talent

Author:Rosie O'Donnell