“The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive.”
"People".
Social Studies (1981)
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Fran Lebowitz 34
author and public speaker from the United States 1950Related quotes
“A man's reach must exceed his grasp or what's a metaphor?”
A play on the line's in Robert Browning's poem "Andrea del Sarto":
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
Source: 1960s, Understanding Media (1964), p.7
“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?”
"Andrea del Sarto", line 98.
Men and Women (1855)
Source: Men and Women and Other Poems
“Difficulty attracts the characterful man, for it is by grasping it that he fulfils himself.”
La difficulté attire l'homme de caractère, car c'est en l'étreignant qu'il se réalise lui-même.
in Mémoires de guerre.
Writings
[Price, Robert M., w:Robert M. Price, The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul, 2012, Signature Books, 1-56085-216-X, 249]
A Man's Style
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books
“Victory is within our ready grasp…We are in reach of a famous victory”
"Abbott's 'famous victory' remark … was it gospel or not?" http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbotts-famous-victory-remark--was-it-gospel-or-not-20100623-ywq0.html in The Age, June 23, 2010.
2010
As quoted in Garry Davis Cult, Life (Jan 24, 1949)
They require that sorrow should find a voice ; now the most soothing sympathy is that which guesses the suffering without a question.
No.7. Rob Roy — DIANA VERNON.
Literary Remains