The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
The temperament that produces a talent for little things is the opposite of that required for great ones.
Interpretation
Mastering small details can hinder the ability to achieve greatness.
This quote highlights the contrasting mindsets required for excelling in minor tasks versus pursuing grand ambitions. While attention to detail is essential in many areas, an overwhelming focus on minutiae might limit the broader vision and boldness needed to achieve greater accomplishments.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of balancing details and vision in business.
The generality of virtuous women are like hidden treasures, they are safe only because nobody has sought after them.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them.
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body; after all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind, and they are in continual danger of breaking the skin and bursting out again.
To understand matters rightly we should understand their details; and as that knowledge is almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.
It is so easy to break down and destroy. _x000D_ The heroes are those who make peace and _x000D_ build.
Don't sit as if you have nothing to say. You should be bursting with things to say. You just choose at this particular place and time, not to say them.
Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.
Never participate in the secrets of those above you; you think you share the fruit, and you share the stones - the confidence of a prince is not a grant, but a tax
The writer can grow as a person or he can shrink. ... His curiosity, his reaction to life must not diminish. The fatal thing is to shrink, to be interested in less, sympathetic to less, desiccating to the point where life itself loses its flavor, and oneβs passion for human understanding changes to weariness and distaste.
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