If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded . . .
Source: The Web and the Rock, ch. 29, 1939.
-- Thomas Wolfe, (Oct 3 1900-1938), US novelist; He is best known for his first novel, Look Homeward Angel, 1929.