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.

From the beginning of my rap career, since I was seen and heard, I always had a store.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

Sowing is not as difficult as reaping.

He who lives in our mind is near though he may actually be far away; but he who is not in our heart is far though he may really be nearby.

I dwell in possibility.

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

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‘.

What the mind doesn’t understand, it worships or fears.

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

To those whose talents are above mediocrity, the highest subjects may be announced. To those who are below mediocrity, the highest subjects may not be announced.

A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue.

My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

I have seen how leaders rule by intimidation. Leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people often do so because they have nothing else to offer. And I have seen how places that stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens are diminished: how they are less vital, less hopeful, less free.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

Purity of speech, of the mind, of the senses, and of a compassionate heart are needed by one who desires to rise to the divine platform.

To me the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that go through everybody’s mind continuously. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.

I’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.

Knowledge of the past and of the places of the earth is the ornament and food of the mind of man.

We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it’s all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can’t change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.

If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

When I was in high school, there were these British blues-rock-type bands with really good guitar players that would jam on one song for half an hour. And as much as I was amazed by some of those guitar players, seeing them prompted me to make a note that that’s not something I could do.

People have this capacity within them to set the world straight.

Why, if someone is good in one field can they not be accepted or given the slightest opportunity to express and be creative in other fields?

There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they’re good or there because they’re lucky.

We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

I can hold my own when it comes to burping. I’ve got a good feeling that I could win a championship.

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 and effort, combined with our various backgrounds and life experiences, has always been the lifeblood of our singular American genius.

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

I think one of my pursuits over the years is trying to answer the question of, ‚What else can you do with a voice other than stand in front of a microphone and sing?‘

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

Puerto Rico’s relationship with music is everything. It’s an island full of talent and if you grow up there, you grow up living and breathing music.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation… even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

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.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he’s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he’s a terrific actor.

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.

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.