Perhaps five or even ten per cent of men can do something rather well. It is a tiny minority who can do anything really well, and the number of men who can do two things well is negligible. If a man has any genuine talent, he should be ready to make almost any sacrifice in order to cultivate it to the full.
Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature.
Talent is the ability to say things well, but genius is the ability to, well, say things.
I regret that I must so continually use the word genius, as if that should apply only to a caste as well defined from those below as income-tax payers are from the untaxed. The word genius was very probably invented by a man who had small claims on it himself; greater men would have understood better what to be a genius really was, and probably they would have come to see that the word could be applied to most people. Goethe said that perhaps only a genius is able to understand a genius.
Well, I had a fiddle that I really can't play, so I loaned it to Darrell. But yeah, he's from another planet.
Since that day, when people have spoken to me of "genius", I have felt the inside pocket to make sure my wallet's still there.
I suppose I get a lot of questions about Tiger. But Tiger Woods is a tremendous talent. He plays well. He has a great work ethic. He's probably as talented of a golfer as anyone who's ever played.
I wish I could put a patent on that thing. That was so straight I had to lean over sideways to see the flag!
Plague might be a social incompetent, but he was unquestionably a genius.
Amazing strength, amazing power - he (Ron Swoboda) can grind the dust out of the bat. He will be great, super even wonderful. Now, if he can only learn to catch a fly ball.
I'd rather him (Grover Alexander) pitch a crucial game for me drunk, then anyone I've ever known sober. He was that good.
I saw a lot of good hitters but I never saw a better one than Paul Waner. I mean I once threw a side arm spitter right into his belly and he hit it into the upper deck.
In my entire life I have never seen a player of such quality and personality at such a young age, particularly wearing the 'heavy' shirt of one of the world's great clubs.
A lot of people wish they could be in the house with the greatest of anything. I just so happened to live across the hall from absolutely, positively the greatest women's basketball player ever.
My father always used to say to me, it doesn’t matter what the profession is, but if they’re the best in their field, it will always be fascinating to watch.
Great performers are, by definition, abnormal; they strive throughout their entire careers to separate themselves from the pack.
Mantle had more ability than any player I ever had on that club.
If I'm a "B player," that's because the "B" stands for badass.
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
The difference in men does not lie in the size of their hands, nor in the perfection of their bodies, but in this one sublime ability of concentration: to throw the weight in one blow, to live eternity in an hour.
Shogun is the most talented guy I've ever seen.
Genius, like gold and precious stones, is chiefly prized because of its rarity.
For I think it is the case with genius that it is not when quiescent so very much above mediocrity as the difference between the two might lead us to think, but that it has the power and privilege of rising from that level to a height utterly far from mediocrity: in other words that its greatness is that it can be so great.
You can perfect genius because genius is not perfection. On his level and his practice and his methodology, it's almost inhuman. So, that's been a fantastic arc to play, and boy does it go somewhere in this series.
One of the best players I've ever seen in my life! Spectacular on training!! Playing with him was a joy!
