A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

One is lucky to be born in a place where no one is doing it, because then you can say, ‚Well, obviously I can write better than everyone else in high school.‘ You have no idea of the competition.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

I’m trying to do what Eddie Murphy did for his generation. You have to show people, ‚I’m different. I’m not just a comedian.‘ I’m trying to become a rock star.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

Chastity does not mean abstention from sexual wrong; it means something flaming, like Joan of Arc.

I think any activity you have your kids in, you’re all trying to live vicariously through them. And you’re jealous of the kid that’s naturally more talented or has the facility, the body, the genes, or the God-given talent. People get jealous of that.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Talent is something that comes from within; it has nothing to do with age.

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

What is virtue but the Trade Unionism of the married?

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

I love to play. And fortunately, I don’t know a lot of musicians that suck. I know a bunch of really good ones, and they’re always up for playing.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.

There’s no better place in the world for technology start-ups than Silicon Valley; there’s such an incredible well of talent and capital and resources. The whole system is set up to foster the creation of new companies.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.

Moderation is a virtue only in those who are thought to have an alternative.

Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.

I just was never into performing. It’s just hard work. It’s hard work.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don’t want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

I tend to overthink things. I’m not the guy who screams ‚This is a world smash!‘ when I finish a song.

Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life – in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do as well as to talk; and to make our words and actions all of a color.

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

It is my absolute belief that Indians have unlimited talent. I have no doubt about our capabilities.

In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.

It was the Congress that imposed ‚Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,‘ it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.

It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

Allah’s the Arabic term for God. Stand up for God, fight for God, work for God and do the right thing, and go the right way, things will end up in your corner.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

I can dance to just about anything.

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.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

Suspicion is far more to be wrong than right; more often unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.

The strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‚I used everything you gave me‘.