david strasser

Improvidus · Apto · quod Victum

Let your curiosity run wild. Search authors and keywords here.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Post #936

Shun idleness. It is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals.
—Voltaire

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Labels: idleness

Newer Post Older Post Home

Links · Laughs · Life Lessons

Random Quote
All Labels
Search This Blog
Contact
A Face in the Cloud
For those who bear the scars of battle
The Snipe's Lament
The Penalty of Leadership
Friends of Dave
Strengths and talents of people with ADHD
Life Lesson: when you can't change your circumstances..
William Barrett Travis letter from The Alamo on Fe...
The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave: From the Latin

Translate it

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

Dave: El Paso, Texas, United States; Native Texan · Navy Veteran · Various Scars and Tattoos · Never Schooled Yet Learned

View my complete profile

A face in the cloud

A face in the cloud

Have a Great Day!

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
Copyright Cadillac Motor Division

Donate to Friends of Dave

Donate to Friends of Dave

It is ever true that he who does nothing for others, does nothing for himself. —JW von Goethe

Total Pageviews

CONTACT DAVE

Name

Email *

Message *

Let your curiosity run wild. Search authors and keywords here.

Y'all come back now. Powered by Blogger.