
1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
Source: The Roving Mind (1983), Ch. 25
Context: How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers.
1850s, Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (1859)
“An Exclusive Interview with Herman Wouk,” Kirk Polking, Writer’s Digest (September 1966).
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
Edgar Davids, 2000 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/4752511/Guardiola-books-his-chance-to-face-Zidane.html.
“He can be a charming man, but he can be quite nasty too. Because this is what he does.”
About Marco van Basten after the fall-out with Mark van Bommel
“I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.”
Gottfried to Jean-Christophe. Part 3: Ada
Variant translation: A hero is one who does what he can. The others don't.
As quoted in A Book of French Quotations (1963) by Norbert Guterman, p. 365
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Youth (1904)
Context: You are a vain fellow. You want to be a hero. That is why you do such silly things. A hero!... I don't quite know what that is: but, you see, I imagine that a hero is a man who does what he can. The others do not do it.
Source: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 247