“Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse and, mostly, sprezzatura.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 39

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse and, mostly, spr…" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo
Nassim Nicholas Taleb 196
Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former t… 1960

Related quotes

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo
Michael Jordan photo

“Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.”

Michael Jordan (1963) American retired professional basketball player and businessman
Billy Graham photo
Stephen King photo
Jean de La Bruyère photo

“Criticism is often not a science; it is a craft, requiring more good health than wit, more hard work than talent, more habit than native genius. In the hands of a man who has read widely but lacks judgment, applied to certain subjects it can corrupt both its readers and the writer himself.”

La critique souvent n'est pas une science; c'est un métier, où il faut plus de santé que d'esprit, plus de travail que de capacité, plus d'habitude que de génie. Si elle vient d'un homme qui ait moins de discernement que de lecture, et qu'elle s'exerce sur de certains chapitres, elle corrompt et les lecteurs et l'écrivain.
Aphorism 63
Les Caractères (1688), Des Ouvrages de l'Esprit

Malcolm Gladwell photo

“Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

Stanley A. McChrystal photo

“There are few secrets to leadership. It is mostly just hard work.”

Stanley A. McChrystal (1954) American general

Source: My Share Of The Task (2013), p. 393-394
Context: All leaders are human. They get tired, angry, and jealous and carry the same range of emotions and frailties common to mankind. Most leaders periodically display them. The leaders I most admired were totally human but constantly strove to be the best humans they could be. Leaders make mistakes, and they are often costly. The first reflex is normally to deny the failure to themselves; the second is to hide it from others, because most leaders covet a reputation for infallibility. But it's a fool's dream and inherently dishonest. There are few secrets to leadership. It is mostly just hard work. More than anything else it requires self-discipline. Colorful, charismatic characters often fascinate people, even soldiers. But over time, effectiveness is what counts. Those who lead most successfully do so while looking out for their followers' welfare.

Rob Enderle photo

“Intel has a long an ugly history of behaving unethically, mostly against competitors like AMD and more recently Qualcomm (its partner in this, Apple, was just highlighted as being basically anti-innovation).”

Rob Enderle (1954) American financial analyst

Intel's Biggest Problems to Fix: Ethics, Loyalty, Priorities https://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/unfiltered-opinion/intels-biggest-problems-to-fix-ethics-loyalty-priorities.html in IT Business Edge (25 June 2018)

Albert Einstein quote: “Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…”
Albert Einstein photo

“Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Related topics