“Naqi suspected that the ability to turn drunkenness on and off like a switch must be one of the most hallowed of diplomatic skills.”
Turquoise Days, Chapter 2 (p. 237)
Short fiction, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003)
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Alastair Reynolds 198
British novelist and astronomer 1966Related quotes
“Men want a woman whom they can turn on and off like a light switch. ”
“Relational skills are the most important abilities in leadership.”
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
Variant: Responsibility is the most important ability that a person can possess.
Source: Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others Reach Their Full Potential
“And that’s why I don’t like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.”
Quoted by his biographer, Walter Isaacson http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/steve-jobs-in-the-end-he-didnt-like-the-off-switch/61586?tag=nl.e589
2010s
Context: Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50-50 maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing a bit more. I kind of – maybe it’s ’cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated. Somehow it lives on, but sometimes I think it’s just like an on-off switch. Click and you’re gone. And that’s why I don’t like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.
Source: "On Today's Scene: Paige Admits He's Feeling His Age" by William Gildea, The Washington Post (Apr 29, 1969), p. D2
Source: 1950s, The Skills of the Economist, 1958, p. 15
“The train of history makes sharp turns and those who are not skilled riders fall off the train.”
As quoted in Dorothy Healey, California Red: A Life in the American Communist Party (1993), p. 81.
Attributions
Variant: "When the train of history makes a sharp turn, said Lenin, the passengers who do not have a good grip on their seats are thrown off." Whittaker Chambers, The Revolt of the Intellectuals, TIME magazine, January 6, 1941.
“Constant practice devoted to one subject often prevails over both ability and skill.”
Adsiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit.
https://archive.org/stream/probalbo00ciceuoft#page/n5/mode/2up
Variant translation: Constant practice given to one matter often conquers both genius and art.
Pro Balbo, section 45