Monday, October 28, 2019

Post #2946

For any man to match above his rank,
Is but to sell his liberty.
—Philip Massinger
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Friday, October 25, 2019

Post #2945

A great interpreter of life ought not himself to need interpretation.
—John Morely
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Thursday, October 24, 2019

Post #2944

You must look into people as well as at them.
—Lord Chesterfield
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Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Post #2943

 Everyone is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.
—Miguel de Cervantes
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Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Post #2942

Chance never helps those who do not help themselves.
—Sophocles

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Monday, October 21, 2019

Post #2941

Censure is often useful, praise is often deceitful.
—Winston Churchill
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Friday, October 18, 2019

Post #2940

May you live unenvied, and pass many pleasant years unknown to fame; and also have congenial friends.
—Ovid
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Thursday, October 17, 2019

Post #2939

No one sees what is before his feet; we all gaze at the stars.
—Cicero
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Post #2938

It is easy to see, hard to foresee.
—Benjamin Franklin
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Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Post #2937

Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.
—Benjamin Franklin
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Monday, October 14, 2019

Post #2936

There is nothing perfectly secure but poverty.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Friday, October 11, 2019

Post #2935

A sip is the most that mortals are permitted from any goblet of delight.
—Amos Bronson Alcott
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Thursday, October 10, 2019

Post #2934

Were we perfectly acquainted with the object, we should never passionately desire it.
—François de La Rochefoucauld

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Wednesday, October 09, 2019

Post #2933

Trouble teaches men how much there is in manhood.
 —Henry Ward Beecher
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Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Post #2932

Dependence There is no one subsists by himself alone.
—Owen Feltham

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The Penalty of Leadership

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live — lives.
written by Theodore F. MacManus

A deadly viper once bit a hole snipe's hide; But 'twas the viper, not the snipe, that died.

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El Paso, Texas, United States
Native Texan · Navy Veteran · Various Scars and Tattoos · No Talent yet a Character

One From the Archives

Post #1234

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied...

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