The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Ability is a wonderful thing, but its value is greatly enhanced by dependability. Ability implies repeatability and accountability.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ability is important, but being dependable makes it even more valuable.
In this quote, Robert A. Heinlein emphasizes that mere ability is not sufficient for success; it is the combination of skill with reliability that truly enhances one's value. Dependability ensures that one's abilities can be trusted and effectively utilized over time, highlighting the importance of accountability in personal and professional achievements.
Themes
AbilityDependabilityReliabilityAccountabilitySuccess
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech to highlight the importance of being dependable in the workplace.
More from Robert A. Heinlein
All quotes βAn armed society is a polite society.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings . . . but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
Similar quotes
Nothing frustrates me more than someone who reads something of mine or anyone else's and says, angrily, 'I don't buy it.' Why are they angry? Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's headβeven if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be.
Malcolm GladwellRead
I'm always wary of the lessons of the past. There's a lot of past out there, and you can draw whatever lessons you want.
Margaret MacmillanRead
I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
HerodotusRead
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
Stephen CoveyRead
The problem lies with us: we've become addicted to experts. We've become addicted to their certainty, their assuredness, their definitiveness, and in the process, we have ceded our responsibility, substituting our intellect and our intelligence for their supposed words of wisdom.
Noreena HertzRead
If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.
John F. KennedyRead