Arthur Schopenhauer

philosophy
2 quotes

Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

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insightskill

Source: The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. 31 ('On Genius'), Arthur Schopenhauer, 1844

Genuine Schopenhauer. The German original runs roughly 'Das Talent gleicht dem Schuetzen, der ein Ziel trifft, welches die Uebrigen nicht erreichen koennen; das Genie dem, der eines trifft, bis zu welchem sie nicht einmal zu sehen vermoegen' — from the supplementary volume of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (1844), chapter on genius. The English wording here is the standard condensed rendering rather than a literal translation of Payne or Haldane/Kemp, so the sense is Schopenhauer's but the phrasing is a popular paraphrase. Attribution itself is not in doubt.

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Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

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insightlimitsvisionworld

Source: Parerga und Paralipomena, Vol. II, Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851; English in 'Further Psychological Observations,' Studies in Pessimism, trans. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890

Genuine Schopenhauer, from the psychological observations in Parerga and Paralipomena vol. II. The familiar English wording is T. Bailey Saunders' translation, widely reprinted in the Studies in Pessimism selection. I am confident of the work but not of a page number.

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