I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.
Culture is not a biologically transmitted complex.
Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not - and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.
Death is an acquired trait.
I have come to the definite conclusion that musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which can be developed.
Leading is a skill, not a gift. You're not born with it, you learn how.
We humans invented literacy, which means it doesn't come for free with our genes like speech and vision. Every brain has to learn it afresh.
Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
Tolerance is an acquired taste. It is not innate. You build tolerance.
Morals are an acquirement -- like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis -- no man is born with them.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired.
