“By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.”
Source: The Magician King
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Lev Grossman 45
American novelist, journalist 1969Related quotes

As quoted in The Federal Career Service: A Look Ahead (1954)
1950s
Variant: Now I think, speaking roughly, by leadership we mean the art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it.

1950s, Conquering Self-centeredness (1957)

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part I: It Seems There Were Two Egyptians, Cheops, or Khufu
“He should get out and do something real.”
Source: The Anarchist Cookbook (1971), Chapter Two: "Electronics, Sabotage, and Surveillance", p. 62.
Context: I detest symbolic protest, as it is an outcry of weak, middle-of-the-road, liberal eunuchs. If an individual feels strongly enough about something to do something about it, then he shouldn't prostitute himself by doing something symbolic. He should get out and do something real.
“Why did he get himself killed for us?" "Because he was a hero. And that is what heroes do.”
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 20
Context: "We irritated him, he told me. Why did he get himself killed for us?" "Because he was a hero. And that is what heroes do. You understand?"

“He [in general] has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise, i. e., cannot do something else.”
Diary entry (Munich, 1908), # 825, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 227
1903 - 1910

“When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.”
Source: A Woman of No Importance