Talent is only a starting point in this business. You've got to keep on working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there. Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in. Flaubert Think of all the really successful men and women you know.
Failure makes people cruel and bitter.
Thomas Merton Success, instead of giving freedom of choice, becomes a way of life. And, being American, many's the time I've almost asked that question, then realized it's good for my soul not to know. Just to let the evening wear on and see what I think of this person without knowing what he does and how successful he is, or what a failure. We're ranking everybody every minute of the day. There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.