-| genius |- 

Genius differs from talent not by the amount of original thoughts, but by making the latter fertile and by positioning them properly, in other words, by integrating everything into a whole, whereas talent produces only fragments, no matter how beautiful.

 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian author 

Honestly speaking, till date there have been so many times when I have confused the two... I knew its literal meaning but often times didn’t use the word appropriately and after reading this I don’t think I’ll ever make that mistake again..... 

I have been recently reading about the semantics of words and related stuff...it’s very interesting and absorbing ... all these things are so intertwined with so many aspects of day to day life - that i would have never thought about it twice ... I also think that at times words are so slippery ... so unreliable...  one wrong word and things can go for a toss.. but then it is also important that the opposite person knows the word and its true meaning ... for example, when I was in school it never made a difference if one called me 'talented' or 'genius' ... It meant one and the same to me... I know better now... 

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle