“I would have artists be convinced that the supreme skill and art in painting consists in knowing how to use black and white... because it is light and shade that make objects appear in relief.” ArtUseLightArtistBlackWhiteKnowingObjectsPaintingSkillsConvincedSupremeReliefShadeBlack And White Author:Leon Battista Alberti
“Hamlet 's character is the prevalence of the abstracting and generalizing habit over the practical. He does not want courage, skill, will, or opportunity; but every incident sets him thinking; and it is curious, and at the same time strictly natural, that Hamlet, who all the play seems reason itself, should he impelled, at last, by mere accident to effect his object. I have a smack of Hamlet myself, if I may say so.” IfsThinkingWantShouldMayDoeReasonPlayCharacterSeemsLastsOpportunityNaturalEffectsObjectsHabitSkillsMereAccidentsPracticalsCuriousIncidentsSmack Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: With an Introductory Essay Upon His Philosophical and Theological Opinions
“To the engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: (1) things that need to be fixed, and (2) things that will need to be fixed after you've had a few minutes to play with them. Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” NeedsGivingArtTwoMatterPlayUniverseImaginationModernMinutesObjectsSkillsFixedCategoriesEngineersBasketsModern ArtPicnicsCraftsmanshipPicnic Baskets Author:Tom Stoppard
“Education is a technology that tries to make up for what the human mind is innately bad at. Children don't have to go to school to learn how to walk, talk, recognize objects, or remember the personalities of their friends, even though these tasks are much harder than reading, adding, or remembering dates in history. They do have to go to school to learn written language, arithmetic, and science, because those bodies of knowledge and skill were invented too recently for any species-wide knack for them to have evolved.” TryingMindHumansChildrenBodySchoolRememberReadingLanguageWalksTechnologyWrittenObjectsPersonalitySkillsTasksHarderSpeciesWideHuman MindArithmeticKnackWritten Language Author:Steven Pinker
“The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.” ShouldForceSocialDarkDecisionObjectsIgnoranceSkillsInvestmentDefeatOur FutureEnvelopesDark Forces Author:John Maynard Keynes
“Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.” UsePoliticalPoliticsStupidObjectsPoliticianSkillsBluntPoliticians And Politics Author:Lester B. Pearson
“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” WorldGivingArtAmericaBeliefImaginationModernObjectsSkillsCriticismCriticsMy ImaginationModern WorldBasketsModern ArtPicnicsCraftsmanshipContemporary ArtPicnic Baskets Author:Tom Stoppard
“If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost any attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself. We can all begin ‘freely’- as light preference is natural enough; but there are very few of us who have a heart enough to be really in love without encouragement.” IfsWorldBelieveHeartMayEnoughLightOpportunityLosesNaturalDarkPoorObjectsGratitudeSkillsSafeEncouragementAffectionVanityAttachmentPreferenceConsolationFixing Author:Jane Austen
“Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm?” ThinkingNeedsMayRealHardMovingGamesSportsWaitingObjectsSkillsBasketballTrainingBaseballPatientIncrediblesClubsSpeedArguingHeySoccerThrowingHittingCriteriaAccuracyStalkingPastimeBest Sports Author:David Brin