My Brain is the key that sets me free.
Harry HoudiniRead
An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect.
Interpretation
Experience and mastery of old skills can be more valuable than new, unproven methods.
This quote by Harry Houdini suggests that having a deep understanding and proficiency in established techniques can yield better results than experimenting with new and untested approaches. It emphasizes the importance of experience, skill, and effectiveness over novelty, encouraging individuals to value what has been tried and tested over what might merely appear innovative but lacks substance.
In practice
A motivational speech at a training session to emphasize the importance of mastering core skills.
My Brain is the key that sets me free.
But then, so far as I know, I am the only performer who ever pledged his assistants to secrecy, honor and allegiance under a notarial oath.
Keep up your enthusiasm! There is nothing more contagious than exuberant enthusiasm.
Never tell the auidience how good you are, they will soon find out for themselves.
I make the most money, I think, in Russia and Paris, for the people of those countries are so willing to be amused, so eager to see something new and out of the ordinary.
Sometimes it seems especially difficult to submit to "great tribulation" when we look around and see others seemingly much less obedient who triumph even as we weep. But time is measured only unto man, says Alma (see Alma 40:8), and God has a very good memory.
Eminence without merit earns deference without esteem.
It has been said that next to hunger and thirst, our most basic human need is for storytelling.
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
In forming a judgment, lay your hearts void of foretaken opinions; else, whatsoever is done or said, will be measured by a wrong rule; like them who have jaundice, to whom everything appears yellow.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
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