Take your work seriously, but never yourself.
Margot FonteynRead
Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.
Interpretation
Genius often appears to be magical due to its mysterious and inexplicable nature.
This quote suggests that genius can seem like a form of magic because it operates beyond the realm of ordinary understanding. It emphasizes that the exceptional creativity and insights of a genius are difficult to explain, much like the mystique of magic that captivates and astonishes us.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of creativity during a lecture.
Take your work seriously, but never yourself.
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.
Life forms illogical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?
Dancers are both athletes and artists.
The essential thing about mothers is that one needs to know that they are there, particularly at that age when, paradoxically, one is trying so hard to break away from parental influence.
Great minds that are healthy are never considered geniuses, while this sublime qualification is lavished on brains that are often inferior but are slightly touched by madness.
Those wounds stay with you, and you turn them into a language and a purpose.
We will have taken one giant step forward when we face this reality: Powerful people never teach powerless people how to take their power away from them.
Work and thou canst escape the reward; whether the work be fine or course, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought.
Only people who have been allowed to practise freedom can have the grown-up look in their eyes.
We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.