Quotes About Skill

His fingers never ceased to amaze me. They could break a man's neck, bandage a wound, and slide sensually across bare skin.

Sydney: I can do a lot of things, Adrian. And—at the risk of sounding egotistical —I mean, well, I can do a lot of pretty awesome things that most people can't." Adrian: "Don't I know it. You can change a tire in ten minutes while speaking Greek." Sydney: "Five minutes.

That's right, Philby said, remembering. You're a computer freak, aren't you, Maybeck? Freak? I'm freaking good with them, if that's what you're asking.

I think the reason I choose the comic approach so often is because it's harder, therefore affording me the opportunity to show off.

The secret of life', he said, 'is to become very very good at somethin' that's very very 'ard to do.

you should be able to make a scene come alive in the reader's mind. Not everybody has this ability. It is a gift, and you either have it or you don't.

Civilians are like beans; you buy 'em as needed for any job which merely requires skill and savvy. But you can't buy fighting spirit.

obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence

A magician is a rule-of-thumb engineer.

Spaceships are for acrobats who are also mathematicians.

Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.

I don't gamble, if you will concede that poker is a game of skill.

All of which is robotic, until one learns how to reprogram and reimprint one's own brain circuits. In most cases, such metaprogramming skill is never acquired. It all goes by in a flash, on mechanical auto-pilot, in zero time. "I just found myself doing it," says the soldier as he is being court-martialed for cowardice or decorated for bravery.

No higher praise can be awarded a fighter pilot than to say he is "shit hot." (The phonetic version used in polite company is "Sierra Hotel.")

The living room walls were crowded with trophies for excellence in the martial arts. Hundreds of them. Gleaming first-place cups and championship belts from exhibitions and tournaments all over the United States. Best All-Around. In Recognition of Excellence. Black Belt Master. Over-All Champion. "Don't worry about this stuff," I said. "The guy probably bought'm." Pike said, "Uh-huh.

When a nation forgets her skill in war, when her religion becomes a mockery, when the whole nation becomes a nation of money-grabbers, then the wild tribes, the barbarians drive in... Who will our invaders be? From whence will they come?

He had to appreciate a creature that knew what it was doing.

It takes great talent and skill to conceal one's talent and skill. LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, 1613–1680 Halliwell

skill and competence are far more important than friendly feelings.

Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

For instance, Ericsson has described how dedicated figure skaters practice differently on the ice: Olympic hopefuls work on skills they have yet to master. Club skaters, in contrast, work on skills they've already mastered. Amateurs tend to spend half of their time at the rink chatting with friends and not practicing at all. Put simply, skaters who spend the same number of hours on the ice achieve very different results because they practice in very different ways.

Many of the profound and persistent problems we face stem more from a lack of skill (which in turn stems from a lack of deliberate practice) than from a genetic curse, a lack of courage, or a character flaw. Self-discipline, long viewed as a character trait, and elite performance, similarly linked to genetic gifts, stem from the ability to engage in guided practice of clearly defined skills.

The lion's share of the problems that really bother us don't call for additional technology, theory, philosophy, or data (we're up to our necks in that); instead, the problems call for the ability to change what people do. And when it comes to this particular skill, demand far exceeds supply. Given

I discovered, though unconsciously and insensibly, that the pleasure of observing and reasoning was a much higher one than that of skill and sport. The primeval instincts of the barbarian slowly yielded to the acquired tastes of the civilized man.