...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.
Interpretation
Success in poetry does not always correlate with the effort put into it.
This quote by Samuel Johnson highlights the idea that hard work does not guarantee success in creative pursuits, such as poetry. It suggests that talent, timing, and other external factors can also play significant roles in determining the level of success an artist achieves, illustrating the unpredictable nature of artistic careers.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the unpredictability of success in the arts.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
One's only security in life comes from doing something uncommonly well.
The truth is that I don't have a favourite goal. I remember important goals more than I do favourite goals, like goals in the Champions League where I had the opportunity to have scored in both finals I have played in. Finals in the World Cup or Copa del Rey are the ones that have stayed with me for longer or that I remember more.
I feel basically good about my career because it's remained constant. What I do has never been especially in vogue or gotten high on the charts. At the same time, I haven't had to stop performing any of my music because it aged in style.
A lot of times I'll see guys who are nowhere near the level of the board they're riding. They might love surfing and love how it looks, but you really have to work your way up. It takes eating a little humble pie at first, and stepping back to equipment that might be a bit slow, but do it.
You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.
I've accomplished enough with the music that I haven't had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.
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