It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Mediocre individuals are often unaware of greatness, while talented people can easily identify brilliance.
This quote highlights the contrast between mediocrity and talent. It suggests that those who are mediocre often lack the insight to recognize exceptional quality or genius, remaining confined to their own limitations. In contrast, talented individuals have a heightened awareness and appreciation for true greatness, allowing them to see beyond their own abilities. The quote invites us to reflect on our own perspective and encourages the pursuit of excellence.
Themes
MediocrityTalentGeniusRecognitionExcellence
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Arthur Conan Doyle
All quotes βI had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
Similar quotes
Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
Henry David ThoreauRead
You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.
Abraham LincolnRead
"To fashion stars out of dog dung, that is the Great Work. To take a negative experience and, by comparing it to something worse, make it feel good, is the great skill."
Alexandra David-NeelRead
Increasingly, people seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication, which is baffling -- the incomprehensible should cause suspicion rather than admiration.
Niklaus WirthRead
However varied you try to make your work, you still bump up against the end of you. You keep knocking into a wall, and the wall is your own skull. But when you adapt somebody's work, it's like a door into somewhere else. It feels like a holiday from myself.
Nick HornbyRead
At fifteen, beauty and talent do not exist; there can only be promise of the coming woman.
Honore De BalzacRead