. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
Gertrude SteinRead
It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.
Interpretation
Genius often requires patience and the willingness to let ideas develop over time.
This quote by Gertrude Stein suggests that the process of becoming a genius or achieving greatness is not just about active work but also involves periods of quiet contemplation and seemingly unproductive time. It emphasizes that real creativity and insight often arise from moments of doing nothing, allowing the mind to wander and nurture thoughts until they grow into profound ideas.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of creativity and downtime.
. . . money . . . is really the difference between men and animals, most of the things men feel, animals feel, and vice versa, but animals do not know about money.
The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.
If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.
The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.
I simply contend that the middle-class ideal which demands that people be affectionate, respectable, honest and content, that they avoid excitements and cultivate serenity is the ideal that appeals to me, it is in short the ideal of affectionate family life, of honorable business methods.
It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death.
Nobody is ordinary if you know where to look.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
People praise you for what they suppose is in you; but you must blame your soul for what you know is in it.
I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day, as each day came.
In the mountains of truth, you never climb in vain.
You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
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