“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”
Variant: It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Source: Discourse on Method
“The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle.”
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
“The main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be, or at least become, an individual.”
Diary entry (3 June 1902), # 411, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968
1895 - 1902
Context: The main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be, or at least become, an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions.
Source: As quoted in 1990, "Rudolf Nureyev, Charismatic Dancer Who Gave Fire to Ballet's Image, Dies at 54" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/07/arts/rudolf-nureyev-charismatic-dancer-who-gave-fire-to-ballet-s-image-dies-at-54.html (7 January 1993)
“Well, I just want him to grow up happy. That's the main thing.”
Talking about his son, Julian Lennon, in Ticket to Ride : Inside the Beatles' 1964 Tour That Changed the World (2003) by Larry Kane http://books.google.com/books?id=5MYmhGAmfUkC&pg=PA258&lpg=PA258&dq=%22well+i+just+want+him+to+grow+up+happy+that's+the+main+thing%22&source=web&ots=o-UOaUrmcr&sig=svkKFzayFfeFgYVwxKn0GsDysPU
“Self-doubt is part of being human...but the main thing is to get on with the business of survival.”
Source: Raft (1991), Chapter 16 (p. 158)
“The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.”
“… we can afford many mistakes in the search. The main thing is to make as fast as possible.”
As quoted by Charles W. Misner, Kip S. Thorne, and Wojciech H. Zurek. "John Wheeler, relativity, and quantum information." https://authors.library.caltech.edu/15184/1/Misner2009p1638Phys_Today.pdf Physics Today 62, no. 4 (April 2009): 40–46 (quote from p. 44) [10.1063/1.3120895]
Attributed to Rodin in H. Read (1964), as cited in: Karl H. Pfenninger, Valerie R. Shubik, Bruce Adolphe (2001). The Origins of Creativity. p. 50
1950s-1990s
