born, not made

born, not made

Describing an innate ability or talent. The original phrase was a translation of the Latin Orator fit, Poeta nascitur (Orators are made, Poets are born), quoted by Sir Philip Sidney in his Apologie for Poetrie (ca. 1521). Later it was extended to include other occupations. Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1851) provided an interesting twist on it when she had Topsy say, “I ’spect I growed. Don’t think nobody never made me.”
See also: made, not
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a rose by any other name
  • a rose by any other name (would smell as sweet)
  • rose by any other name would smell as sweet
  • born to (be or do something)
  • Who guards the guards?
  • Who is guarding the guards?
  • Who is watching the watchers?
  • Who watches the watchers?
  • (as) sure as eggs (is eggs)
  • like a duck to water
References in classic literature
Richard Carstone, who has so meritoriously acquitted himself in the--shall I say the classic shades?--in which his youth had been passed, will, no doubt, apply the habits, if not the principles and practice, of versification in that tongue in which a poet was said (unless I mistake) to be born, not made, to the more eminently practical field of action on which he enters."
"Detectives are born, not made. I will keep doing this job until I am no longer alive," she said.
The saying goes that heroes are born, not made. But practically, all personalities are made through time, not inherited.
They say charismatic leaders are born, not made. Even Max Weber, the German political economist who gave the world the word, defined charisma as 'a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities.
The New York-based trainor to Hollywood stars, most of them established or are award-winners, doesn't believe in the saying that actors are born, not made.
There is a school of thought that says heroes are born, not made.
The painter Betsy Westendorp, perhaps best known for her portraits of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, once said that portrait painters are born, not made. You either have the knack for capturing faces, or you don't.
According to one school of thought, Jedis are born, not made: They are the chosen ones whose blood is carbonated by midi-chlorians, magical microparticles that enable them to do things like wave their hands ever so slightly and convince you that these were not the droids you were looking for.
ON the subject of world-class strikers, it's funny, because I always hear how they are born, not made, how it's all instinctive.
Brown dwarfs usually are born, not made, and so this little stellar "failure" sheds new and important light on the existence of cannibalism among the stars.
Some say that leaders are born, not made. I'm not so sure.
Age cannot make more stale or repetition perfect its imperturbable dullness: the true cliche is born, not made.
A true military genius was born, not made. The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a machine utilized by radical Republicans to oversee the Army of the Potomac, always sought out gifted amateurs because so many of the professionals, in the Old Army tradition, were ardent Democrats.
Hardy took the position that leaders are born, not made, but added that merely being a born leader is not enough.
You might have heard the expression "top salespeople are born, not made." However, if you evaluate why some consistently hit their targets while others struggle, you will see a pattern of processes that make this happen.