When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at night are made for mediocre minds — like those horses that are equally good for saddle and carriage, the worst kind, that can neither jump a ditch nor pull a plow.Gustave Flaubert
About This Quote
When we practice, we should do so with full commitment and attention. We must do it wholeheartedly and well. If we want to be great at something, we should strive to be the best. If we are mediocre, there are obviously many who are better than us.
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More Quotes By Gustave Flaubert
- It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.
- Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
- Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.
- There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it
- One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.