Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
H. G. WellsRead
Things that would have made fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to do things too easily.
Interpretation
Hard work and cleverness are often necessary for achieving true greatness.
H. G. Wells suggests that what may bring fame to an ordinary person might only appear as mere tricks for someone more clever. He warns against the danger of taking the easy route, implying that true accomplishments require effort and deeper understanding.
In practice
In a motivational speech about achieving success in a challenging career.
Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no need of change.
He spares no resource in telling of his dead inventions... Bare verbs he rarely tolerates. He splits infinitives and fills them up with adverbial stuffing. He presses the passing colloquialism into his service. His vast paragraphis sweat and struggle; the
It [a new world order] needs only that the governments of Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and Russia should get together in order to set up an effective control of currency, credit, production, and distribution – that is to say, an effective ‘dictatorship of prosperity,’ for the whole world. The other sixty odd States would have to join in or accommodate themselves to the over-ruling decisions of these major Powers.
But I was too restless to watch long; I'm too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours - that's another matter.
The greatest task of democracy, its ritual and feast - is choice.
I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on that accursed machine than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view - get hot, juicy, red - like a grilled chop. Get me on that machine and I have to go. I go scorching along the road, and cursing aloud at myself for doing it.
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
If you will take my advice you will think little of Socrates, and a great deal more of truth.
Where there is no novelty, there can be no curiosity.
I don't want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who I am, this is what I do, I say what's on my mind.
To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.
Nothing makes one old so quickly as the ever-present thought that one is growing older.
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