John Milton - Michio Kaku - Giorgio Vasari - Peter Paul Rubens - Winslow Homer - G H Lewes - A Bronx Tale 1993 - Junius - Patrick Suskind - Owen Meredith - John F Kennedy - Sugar Ray Leonard - H L Mencken - Homer - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Anna Garlin Spencer - Arthur Conan Doyle - Manhattan 1979 - Most Shocking Talent Show Moments TV - Benjamin Franklin - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Muhammad Ali - Hughie Green, Most Sincerely TV - Broadway Danny Rose 1984 - James Baldwin - Stephen J Gould - Straight Outta Compton 2015 - Nick Broomfield TV - Incredible Medicine: Dr Weston’s Casebook TV - Marlon Brando - Losers: The Miscast Champion 2019 - Albert Einstein - House of Cards TV - Nick Broomfield TV - Frank Sinatra - Oscar Wilde - Storyville TV -
When I consider how my light is spent,
E’re half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless. John Milton, Sonnet 16
Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfil whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfil the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfil whatever dreams are within our capability.
Second, we should try to leave the world a better place than when we entered it. As individuals, we can make a difference, whether it is to probe the secrets of Nature, to clean up the environment and work for peace and social justice, or to nurture the inquisitive, vibrant spirit of the young by being a mentor and a guide. Michio Kaku
Sometimes in a supernatural fashion a single body [Da Vinci] is lavishly supplied with such beauty, grace and ability that ... each of his actions is so divine that he leaves behind all other men ... a genius endowed by God. Men saw this in Leonardo da Vinci. Giorgio Vasari
My talent is such that no undertaking, however vast in size ... has ever surpassed my courage. Paul Rubens
What they call talent is nothing but the capacity for doing continuous work in the right way. Winslow Homer
Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families. G H Lewes, The Physiology of Common Life, 1859
The saddest thing in life is wasting talent. A Bronx Tale 1993 starring Lillo Brancato junior & Robert De Niro & Chazz Palminteri & Taral Hicks & Francis Capra & Joe Pesci & Clem Caserta & Kathrine Narducci et al, director Robert De Niro, dad to Calogero
Notable talents are not necessarily connected to discretion. Junius
Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything. Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can. Owen Meredith, Last Words of a Sensitive Second-Rate Poet, 1868
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. John F Kennedy
I consider myself blessed. I consider you blessed. We’ve all been blessed with God-given talents. Mine just happens to be beating people up. Sugar Ray Leonard, boxer, variations inc Muhammad Ali
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. H L Mencken, 1880-1956
The glorious gifts of the gods are not to be cast aside. Homer, The Iliad
A really great talent finds its happiness in execution. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The failure of women to produce genius of the first rank in most of the supreme forms of human effort has been used to block the way of all women of talent and ambition for intellectual achievement in a manner that would be amusingly absurd were it not so monstrously unjust and socially harmful. Anna Garlin Spencer, Woman’s Share in Social Culture, 1912
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear, 1915
Talent is luck; the important thing in life is courage. Manhattan 1979 starring Woody Allen & Dianne Keaton & Michael Murphy & Mariel Hemingway & Meryl Streep & Anne Byrne & Michael O’Donoghue & Wallace Shawn & Karen Ludwig et al, director Woody Allen
12) Jedwood: UK X Factor 2009; Most Shocking Talent Show Moments, Channel 5 2011
11) Wrong Girl Wins West End Role Shock: I’ll Do Anything 2008;
10) Marco Pierre White: Hell’s Kitchen 2007: Jim Davidson’s homophobia;
9) Jarvis Cocker: Stars in Their Eyes Popstars Special 2002: ‘Tonight, Matthew, I am going to be Rolf Harris.’ Jarvis Cocker
8) Popstars 2001: The man who hits every note wrong in the auditions singing Baby, Hit Me Baby One More Time;
7) Popstars: Ireland 2001. Nadeen Coyle auditioning for Irish Popstars. The band that Nadeen was so keen to be part of was this talent-TV-created band: Six. Can you spot the deliberate mistake? There’s only five of them ... Nadeen slipped up in an interview ... Nadeen was sacked ... The wrong date of birth ... Six became Five ...
6) Joe McElderry: X Factor 2009. This is the moment in 2009 when Joe McElderry won the X Factor ... Rage Against the Machine made the Christmas Number One;
5) Let’s Dance for Comic Relief 2009: Who is that masked man wielding a blow-torch? Robert Webb in a plastic leotard Dirty Dancing;
4) Mr Nasty, or Jason Gardner as he is known to his mum, and universally disliked by the slipping sliding contestants on Dancing on Ice;
3) Ann Widdecombe: Dancing on Ice 2010;
2) The Pop Idol who dared to disagree with Mr Nasty himself: Will Young ... ‘I just thought it was average I’m afraid.’ Simon Cowell
1) Britain’s Got Talent 2009: Susan Boyle.
Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What’s a sundial in the shade? Benjamin Franklin
A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
What is most vile and despicable about money is that it even confers talent. And it will do so until the end of the world. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others. Muhammad Ali
Talent rises from the murkiest swamps and quagmires. Hughie Green, Most Sincerely starring Trevor Eve & Mark Benton & Emma Stansfield & Kim Thomson et al, Hughie Green to children’s television guy, BBC 2008
I’ve got that big Miami joke that I do: about the hotels being expensive ... Last night it died. Broadway Danny Rose 1984 starring Woody Allen & Mia Farrow & Nick Apollo Forte & Sandy Baron & Corbett Monica & Jackie Gayle & Morty Gunty & Will Jordan & Howard Storm & Gloria Parker et al, director Woody Allen, dude at table
She is the Jascha Heifetz of this instrument. [singing glasses] She is really something – you gotta see this, Philly. It’s absolutely incredible. Never took a lesson. Self-taught ... My God, she’s going to be in the Carnegie Hall. But you, I’ll let you have her now at the old price, OK. Which is anything you want to give me. ibid.
Woody: How old are you, darling? How are you? How old are you?
Child: Twelve.
Woody: Are you married? ibid.