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TABLOIDS
TACITURN --- TACT
TAHITI --- TAKING ADVANTAGE --- TAKING A STAND
TAKING OFFENSE --- TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY
TALENT

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.
.

TABLOIDS

see: "JOURNALISM" for related links


People who read the tabloids deserve
to be lied to.
--Jerry Seinfeld (1954— )
American actor, writer, and comedian.



TACITURN

.
.

see: "COMMUNICATION" for related links


She was not a woman of many words, for, unlike
people in general, she proportioned them to the
number of her ideas.
--Jane Austen (1775—1817)
English writer.
_Sense and Sensibility_, vol. 2, ch. 12 [1811]

Be slow of tongue and quick of eye.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist

^^

One day Calvin Coolidge was waiting to get his hair cut when the
local doctor came in, sat beside him, and asked, "Did you take the
pills I gave you?" Coolidge was characteristically silent for a few
minutes, then said, "Nope." The doctor then asked if he was feeling
better. Another long pause, then Coolidge replied, "No." After his
haircut Coolidge started to leave the barbershop when the barber
suggested that he had forgotten to pay for his haircut. "Oh, I'm
sorry," said Coolidge. "I was so busy gossiping with the doctor,
it slipped my mind."
--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard

^^

WOMAN: You must talk to me, Mr. Coolidge. I made a
bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.
COOLIDGE: You lose.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
In Ishbel Ross
_Grace Coolidge and Her Era: The Story of a President's Wife_ [1962].

-

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything
unless I hope to produce some good by it.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
Speech in Washington, D.C., [6 August 1862].

A Wise Old Owl lived in an oak;
The more he saw the less he spoke;
The less he spoke the more he heard:
Why can't we all be like that bird?
--Edward Hersey Richards (1874—1957)
American poet.

Never say more than is necessary.
--Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751—1816)
Anglo-Irish dramatist.
_The Rivals_ [1775], act II, sc. 1

-

I soon discovered that if a wayfaring stranger
wishes to eavesdrop on a local population the
places for him to slip in and hold his peace are
bars and churches. But some New England
towns don't have bars, and church is only on
Sunday. A good alternative is the roadside
restaurant were men gather for breakfast
before going to work or going hunting. To find
these places inhabited, one must get up very
early. And there is a drawback even to this.
Early-rising men not only do not talk much to
strangers, they barely talk to one another.
Breakfast conversation is limited to a series
of laconic grunts. The natural New England
taciturnity reaches its glorious perfection
at breakfast.

I fed Charley, gave him a limited promenade,
and hit the road. An icy mist covered the hills
and froze on my windshield. I am not normally
a breakfast eater, but here I had to be or I
wouldn't see anybody unless I stopped for gas.
At the first lighted roadside restaurant I pulled
in and took my seat at a counter. The customers
were folded over their coffee cups like ferns. A
normal conversation is as follows:

WAITRESS: 'Same?'
CUSTOMER: 'Yep.'
WAITRESS: 'Cold enought for you?'
CUSTOMER: 'Yep.'
(Ten minutes.)
WAITRESS: 'Refill?'
CUSTOMER: 'Yep.'

This is a really talkative customer. Some reduce
it to 'Burp' and others do not answer at all. An
early-morning waitress in New England leads a
lonely life, but I soon learned that if I tried to
inject life and gaiety into her job with a blithe
remark she dropped her eyes and answered
'Yep' or 'Umph'. Still, I did feel that there was
some kind of communication, but I can't say
what it was.

--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.
_Travels With Charley_ [1962]


Presently I saw a man leaning on a two-strand barbed-wire
fence, the wires fixed not to posts but to crooked tree limbs
stuck in the ground. The man wore a dark hat, and jeans and
long jacket washed palest blue, with lighter places at knees
and elbows. His pale eyes were frosted with sun glare and his
lips scaly as snakeskin. A .22 rifle leaned against the fence
beside him and on the ground lay a little heap of fur and
feathers - rabbits and small birds. I pulled up to speak to him,
saw his eyes wash over Rocinante, sweep up the details, and
then retire into their sockets. And I found I had nothing to
say to him. The 'Looks like an early winter' or 'Any good fishing
hereabouts?' didn't seem to apply. And so we simply brooded
at each other.

'Afternoon!'

'Yes, sir,' he said.

'Any place nearby where I can buy some eggs?'

'Not real close by 'less you want to go as far as Galva or up
to Beach.'

'I was set for some scratch-hen eggs.'

'Powdered,' he said. 'My Mrs gets powdered.'

'Lived here long?'

'Yep.'

I waited for him to ask something or to say something so
we could go on, but he didn't. And as the silence continued,
it became more and more impossible to think of something
to say. I made one more try. 'Does it get very cold here
winters?'

'Fairly.'

'You talk too much.'

He grinned. 'That's what my Mrs says.'

'So long,' I said, and put the car in gear and moved along.
And in my rear-view mirror I couldn't see that he looked after
me. He may not be a typical Badlander, but he's one of the
few I caught.

--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.
_Travels With Charley_ [1962]

-

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
--Xenocrates (c.395—314 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

-

Our Lips And Ears

If you your lips would keep from slips.
Five things observe with care:
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how and when and where.

If you your ears would save from jeers,
These things keep meekly hid:
Myself and I, and mine and my,
And how I do and did.

--anon.

-----

laconic (adj.)
Using or involving the use of a minimum of words:
concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious.
laconically (adverb)

reticent (adj.) ['re-tκ-sκnt]
Reluctant to speak or say anything; taciturn.
This word is misused so often to mean "reluctant to do anything" that the
errant meaning is creeping into US dictionaries. This adjective has but one
meaning: reluctant to speak or express oneself.





TACT

.
.

see: "DIPLOMACY"
see: "JUDGEMENT"
see: "SILENCE"
see: "TASTE"
see: "CIVILITY" for other related links
see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links


A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along
with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his
superiority; and you must deal with him from that point of
view.
--Alfred Adler (1870—1937)
Austrian psychologist.

The tribute which intelligence
pays to humbug.
--St John Brodrick (1856—1942)
British Conservative politician.
Lady Ribblesdale to Lord Curzon [3 April 1891],
in Kenneth Rose _Superior Person_ [1969]

It is tact that is golden, not silence.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
_The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, ed. Henry Festing Jones [1907]

Do not use a hatchet to remove a
fly from your friend's forehead.
--Chinese Proverb

Tact is rubbing out another's mistake
instead of rubbing it in.
--Farmer's Almanac

There is a Time to wink as well as to see.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732]

All truths are not to be told.
--George Herbert (1593—1633)
English religious poet.
_Jacula Prudentum_ (Outlandish Proverbs) [1640]

Tact is the ability to tell a man he is open-minded
when he has a hole in his head.
--F.G. Kernan

If you wish to appear agreeable in society,
you must consent to be taught many things
which you already know.
--Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801)
Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics.
In Robert Andrews
_The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 246 [1987].

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
--attributed to both Anne Morrow Lindbergh & Eleanor Chaffee

-

Allowing an unimportant mistake to pass without
comment is a wonderful social grace.
--Judith "Miss Manners" Martin (1938— )
American newspaper columnist.


Should you happen to notice that another person
is extremely tall or overweight, eats too much or
declines convivial drinks, has red hair or goes
about in a wheelchair, ought to get married or
ought not to be pregnant — see if you can refrain
from bringing these astonishing observations to
that person's attention.
--Judith "Miss Manners" Martin (b. 1938)
American newspaper columnist.
Quoted in William Safire & Leonard Safir
_Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice_ [1989].

-

Tact is the knack of making a point
without making an enemy.
--Howard W. Newton (1903—1951)
American advertising executive and
magazine columnist.

Tact is the art of putting your foot down,
without stepping on anyone's toes.
--Laurence J. Peter (1919—1990)
Canadian teacher and author.
_Peter's Almanac_ [1982]

Some delicate matters must be treated like pins,
because if they are not seized by the right end,
we get pricked.
--Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792—1870)
French-Swiss lyric poet.

Do you still throw spears at each other?
--Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921— )
Consort of Queen Elizaberh II.
To Aboriginal cultural park owner William Brim
during a Royal visit to Cairns in Queensland, Australia.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.
--Mary Pettibone Poole
"Made in Manhattan"
_A Glass Eye at a Keyhole_ [1938]

[Tact] is a number of qualities working together: insight into [human
nature], sympathy, self-control, a knack of inducing self-control in
others, avoidance of human blundering, readiness to give the
immediate situation an understanding mind and a second thought.
Tact is not only kindness, but kindness skillfully extended.
--J.G. Randall (1881—1953)
_Lincoln the President_, 4 vols. [1946—1955]

A man says what he knows, a woman
says what will please.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
French philosopher and novelist.
_Emile_ [1762]

To tell a woman who is forty, "You look like
sixteen," is baloney. The blarney way of saying it
is "Tell me how old you are, I should like to know
at what age women are most beautiful."
--Fulton John Sheen (1895—1979)
Roman Catholic bishop; the first popular
preacher to appear on television.
_Life Is Worth Living_ (Fifth Series) [1957]

There are three things in speech that ought to be considered
before some things are spoken — the manner, the place and
the time.
--Robert Southey (1774—1843)
English poet.
Attributed in S. Austin Allibone
_Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay_ [1880 ed.].

If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you
must consent to be taught many things which
you know already.
--Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Pιrigord (1754—1838)
French statesman.
_Reminiscences of Prince Talleyrand; Edited from the Papers of the
Late M. Colmache, Private Secretary to the Prince_ [2 vol., 2nd ed., 1850]

-----

gaucherie [goh-shuh-REE], noun:
1. A socially awkward or tactless act.
2. Lack of tact; boorishness; awkwardness.
Synonyms: blunder, faux pas, gaffe.
Ex.: Here we see the insecure, unattractive woman who
at long last has found someone even more insecure and
unattractive than herself, calling attention to her companion's
gaucherie in order to feel, for once in her life, like the belle
of the ball.
--Florence King, "Out and About,"
_National Review_ [9 November 1998]



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TAHITI

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.

see: "PLACES" for related links


European imperialism long ago made Tahiti
a distant suburb of Paris, the missionaries
made it a suburb of Christ's kingdom, and
the radio made it a suburb of Los Angeles.
--Cedric Belfrage (1904—1990)
English born socialist, author, and journalist.
_Away From It All_ [1936]





TAKING ADVANTAGE

.
.

see: "OPPORTUNITY"
see: "DECEPTION" for other related links


Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive
of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest
furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest
storm.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, XXVIII [1821 ed.]

Take heed: Most Men will cheat without
Scruple where they can do it without Fear.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Introductio ad Prudentiam_ [1731]

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
--Robert Herrick (1591—1674)
English poet and clergyman.
"To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" l. 1 [1648]

When the sun shineth, make hay.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Proverbs_ [1546]

When the cat's away, the mice will play.
--Thomas Heywood _A Woman Killed With Kindness_ [1607]

One man's beard is on fire, and another man warms his hands on it.
--Kashmiri proverb.

Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half
of people clever enough to take indecent advantage
of them.
--Walter Kerr (1913—1996)
American theater critic [husband of Jean Kerr].

There are no circumstances, however unfortunate,
that clever people don't extract some advantage
from.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_ [1678]

I have granted you much that you asked: and yet you
never cease to ask of me. He who refuses nothing,
Atticilla, will soon have nothing to refuse.
--Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis] (38/41—103)
Roman poet.
_Epigrams_, bk. XII [98]

^^

UN-NAMED ACTRESS: In one year that stinker's got through
$100,000 of my money.
BARBARA STANWYCK: Tell me, darling, is the screwing you're
getting worth the screwing you're getting?

--quoted in Rosemary Jarski, _Hollywood Wit_ [2000]

^^

When I am the weaker, I ask you for my freedom,
because that is your principle; but when I am
the stronger, I take away your freedom, because
that is my principle.
--Louis Veuillot (1813—1883)
French journalist and man of letters.

-

When a man with experience meets a man with
money, the man with money gets the experience,
and the man with experience gets the money.
--anon.





TAKING A STAND

.
.

see: "ACTIONS" for related links


It is always easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the
courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself; we can
always say we're not hurt by the stones others throw at us, and it's
only at night - when we're alone and our wife or our husband or our
school friend is asleep - that we can silently grieve over our own
cowardice.
--Paulo Coelho (1947— )
Brazilian lyricist and novelist.

He once sailed into the Newport, California, harbor and took his
skipper along with him into the yacht club bar. An official beckoned
him aside and intimated that a respectable yacht club was no place to
bring his "paid hands." [Humphrey] Bogart called for his bar check
and on the back of it wrote out his resignation.
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_Six Men_

The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than
when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often
by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep in step and obey in
silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is
the duty of the good citizen not to be silent.
--Charles Eliot Norton (1827—1908)
American scholar.
_True Patriotism_ [1898]

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our
enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
--J.K. Rowling (1966— )
Scottish novelist.
_Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_ [1997]

If you stand up and are counted, you may get
yourself knocked down. But remember this:
A man flattened by an opponent can get up
again. A man flattened by conformity stays
down for good.
--Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874—1956)
American industrialist and founder of IBM.




TAKING OFFENSE

.
.

see: "PATIENCE"
see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links


A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me, and no other can.
--William Cowper (1731—1800)
English poet and hymnodist.

Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who
affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting.
When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that
it is your own opinion which provokes you.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher.
_The Enchiridion_ [c. 135]

If all printers were determined not to print anything
till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would
be very little printed.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.

If all else fails, the character of a man
can be recognized by nothing so surely
as by a jest which he takes badly.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.
_Aphorisms_ [1765-1799], aphorism 46

At ev'ry Trifle scorn to take Offense,
That always shows Great Pride, or Little Sense.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_An Essay on Criticism_, pt. II, l. 186 [1711]

Other nations have been called thin-skinned,
but the citizens of the Union have, apparently,
no skins at all; they wince if a breeze blows
over them, unless it be tempered with adulation.
--Frances Trollope (1780—1863)
English author [mother of Anthony Trollope].
_Domestic Manners of the Americans_ [1832]

It is a dear and lovely disposition, and a most valuable one,
that can brush away indignities and discourtesies and seek
and find the pleasanter features of an experience.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
"Chapters from My Autobiography—VI" in
_North American Review_ [16 November 1906]

Do not take life's experiences too seriously. Above all,
do not let them hurt you, for in reality they are nothing
but dream experiences. If circumstances are bad and you
have to bear them, do not make them a part of yourself.
Play your part in life, but never forget that it is only
a role.
--Paramahansa Yogananda (1893—1952)
Indian yogi and guru.

----

umbrage [UHM-brij], noun:
1. Shade; shadow; hence, something that affords a shade,
as a screen of trees or foliage.
2. a. A vague or indistinct indication or suggestion; a hint.
b. Reason for doubt; suspicion.
3. Suspicion of injury or wrong; offense; resentment.



TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

.
.

see: "CHARACTER" for related links


If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility
for it. If we can't take responsibility for it, we'll
always be its victim.
--Richard Bach (1936— )
American writer.
_Running from Safety: An Adventure of the Spirit_ [1994]

I did it to myself. It wasn't society... it wasn't a pusher,
it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It
was all my doing.
--Ray Charles (1930—2004)
American pianist and soul singer.
[On his heroin addiction.]

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for
themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.
--Hermann Hesse (1877—1962)
German novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
_Reflections_, # 106 [1974]

-

The Buck Stops Here.
--Sign on Harry Truman's desk, quoted in "Washington Post" [15 December 1946].
According to Fred R. Shapiro in _The Yale Book of Quotations_, p. 770 [2006],
"The phrase is now firmly associated with Truman but appears to have an
older history. The Reno (Nev.) "Evening Gazette" 1 Oct. 1942, printed a
photograph of a sign clearly reading THE BUCK STOPS HERE on the desk of
Army Colonel A.B. Warfield. Jonathan Lighter, editor of the "Historical Dictionary
of American Slang," reports that he found these words in the periodical "Our
Army" from the early or mid-1930s; the exact reference remains untraced."

& note:

I won't pass the buck.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
Quoted in Michael Hennessy
_From a Green Mountain Farm to the White House_ [1924].

-



TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY

.
.

see: "LIGHT-HEARTED"
see: "TRIFLES"
see: "MISTAKES" for related links


The one serious conviction that a man should
have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
In _Samuel Butler's Notebooks_, edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill [1951].

^

Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576)
Italian mathematician and astrologer.

Cardano was renowned throughout Europe as
an astrologer, even visiting England to cast
a horoscope of the young king, Edward VI.
A steadfast believer in the accuracy of his
so-called science, Cardano constructed a
horoscope predicting the hour of his own
death. When the day dawned, it found him
in good health and safe from harm. Rather
than have his prediction falsified, Cardano
killed himself.

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

^^

Charondas (6th century B.C.) Greek legislator.

One of Charondas's laws forbade citizens
to carry weapons into the public assembly.
Forgetting this, he wore his sword into
the public meeting one day. A fellow
citizen reproached him for violating his
own law. "By Zeus, I will confirm it," said
Charondas instantly, and drawing his
sword, killed himself.

_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard

^^

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.
_Orthodoxy_, ch. 7 [1908]

Listen, Suckers, why take life so seriously — in a hundred
years we will all be gone or in some stuffy book. Give me
plenty of laughs and you can take all the rest.
--Mary Cecelia Louise "Texas" Guinan (1884—1933)
American saloon keeper, actress, and entrepreneur.
In Louise Berliner, _Texas Guinan, Queen of the Night Clubs_ [1993].

All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.
--Hermann Hesse (1877—1962)
German novelist, poet, and winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
_Reflections_ [1974], #588

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision
or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that
will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you
to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat of the
moment. Banish tension and concern and worry with
laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to
think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come.
Never take yourself too seriously.
--Og Mandino (1923—1996)
American author and motivational speaker.
_A Better Way to Live_ [1990] "Rule Eleven"

People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity
are very much in the way of civilization.
--Agnes Repplier (1855—1950)
American author.
_In Pursuit of Laughter_ [1936]

It is our responsibilities, not ourselves,
that we should take seriously.
--Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov [1921—2004]
British entertainer, writer, and humanitarian.



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TALENT

.
.

see: "ABILITY"
see: "GENIUS"


Doing easily what others find difficult is talent;
doing what is impossible for talent is genius.
--Henri Frιdιrick Amiel (1821—1881)
Swiss critic.
_Journal_ [1856]

It took me 15 years to discover I had no talent for
writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that
time I was too famous.
--Robert Benchley (1889—1945)
American humorist and newspaper columnist.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [September 1949].

Talent, like beauty, to be pardoned, must be obscure and unostentatious.
--Marguerite Blessington (1789—1849)
Irish novelist and poet.
In R. R. Madden _The Literary Life and Correspondence
of the Countess of Blessington_, vol. I [1855].

I know not why we should delay our tokens of respect to those who deserve
them, until the heart that our sympathy could have gladdened has ceased to
beat. As men cannot read the epitaphs inscribed upon the marble that covers
them, so the tombs that we erect to virtue often only prove our repentance
that we neglected it when with us.
--Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803—1873)
British novelist, playwright, and politician.
Quoted in Craufurd Tait Ramage
_Great Thoughts from Latin Authors_, p. 178 [3rd ed. 1884].

Brevity is the sister of talent.
--Anton Chekhov (1860—1904)
Russian dramatist and short-story writer.
Letter to Alexander Chekhov [11 April 1889].


View the whole scene, with critic judgment scan,
And then deny him merit if you can.
Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone,
Where he succeeds, the merit's all his own.
--Charles Churchill (1731—1764)
English poet.
"The Rosciad" [1761]

Nothing in the 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 are omnipotent. The slogan
'press on' has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
Attributed; in the program of a memorial service for Coolidge.
Note: According to Fred R. Shapiro (ed.) in
_The Yale Book of Quotations_, p. 173 [2006]:
"Coolidge wrote this after his retirement for the New York Life
Insurance Company, on whose board of directors he served."

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself,
but talent instantly recognizes genius.
--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930)
Scottish-born writer of detective fiction.
_The Valley of Fear_, ch. I [1915]

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character
is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832)
German poet, novelist, and playwright.
_Torquato Tasso_, I. ii [1790]

Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley
Temple could do it when she was four.
--attributed to Katharine Hepburn (1907—2003)
American stage and motion-picture actress; winner of four Academy Awards.

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in
prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
--Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC)
Roman poet.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No
machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
"The Philistine" magazine, published [1895—1915],
v. 18, no. 1 [December 1903]

He was one of those men who possess almost every
gift, except the gift of the power to use them.
--Charles Kingsley (1819—1875)
English writer and clergyman.
_Westward Ho!_ [1855]

We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, but never of judgment.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, no. 456 [1665]

People have started asking me if we've got any talent
on this team. Well, I tell them, if we start winning
games we'll have talent. But since we're getting beat
to death, no, we don't.
--Joe Namath (1943— )
American football player.
In Rick Telander _Joe Namath and the Other Guys_ [1976].

With people of only moderate ability, modesty is mere
honesty; but with those who possess great talent, it
is hypocrisy.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
"Studies in Pessimism Further Psychological Observations"
_Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_, tr. T. Bailey Saunders [1851]

Talent is always conscious of its own abundance,
and does not object to sharing.
--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918— )
Russian novelist.
_The First Circle_, p. 3 [1968]

A Steinway will never sound quite the same again.
--Steinway & Sons, piano manufacturer.
Sole copy in ad honoring the memory of
Vladimir Horowitz who had just died,
_New York Times_ [10 November 1989].

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many
useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination
without skill gives us modern art.
--Tom Stoppard [Tomas Straussler] (b. 1937)
Czech-born British playwright.
"Artist Descending a Staircase" [1972]

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 269 [1908 ed.].

If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he
has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If
he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it,
he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a
triumph few men ever know.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
_The Web and the Rock_ [1939]

-

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very
silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
--anon., found in _The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical,
Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion_ [September 1874], as
quoted in Jeffrey S. Cramer (ed.) _The Quotable Thoreau_ [2011].

-----

prodigy (noun)
Somebody with exceptional talent: somebody who shows
an exceptional natural talent for something from an
early age.


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