Difficult Quotes - Page 31

• there seem to be times of reception and times of creation and it is perhaps difficult not to confuse the two.

  Margaret Wise Brown

  Creativity, Two, Creation

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• Painting is so difficult that I would give it up if it were not so enjoyable.

  William McGregor Paxton

  Giving, Painting, Enjoyable

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• Feedback for leaders is often nuanced and difficult to deliver. That said, hearing you are passive-aggressive from 10 different people described 10 different ways becomes hard to ignore.

  Scott Weiss

  People, Leader, Way

  "Treating the Dysfunctional CEO". scott.a16z.com. December 6, 2011.

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• It's very difficult to evaluate a leader in a very short-term perspective because to be a leader you must be able to have a long-term perspective. You must be able to carry changes which take many years. And this is why you can really only see whether it has been a good leadership after some years have passed.

  Gro Harlem Brundtland

  Leadership, Years, Perspective

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• [A difficult childhood gave me] a kind of cocky confidence. ... I could never have so little that I hadn't had less. It took away my fear.

  Jacqueline Cochran

  Cocky, Adversity, Childhood

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• All people, even one's own children, come with baggage. When they're little, you have to help them carry it. But when they grow up, you have to do that difficult thing of setting their baggage down and taking up your own again.

  Lucille Clifton

  Children, Growing Up, People

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• Poverty, chastity, and obedience are extremely difficult. But there are always the graces if you will pray for them.

  Kathryn Hulme

  Grace, Poverty, Praying

  Kathryn Hulme, Edward Streeter, Helen Howe, Frank O'Rourke, Winston Graham (1956). “The Nun's Story, Merry Christmas Mr. Baxter, The Success, The Diamond Hitch, The Sleeping Partner”

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• The world will provide you with every imaginable obstacle, but the one most difficult to overcome will be the lack of faith in yourself. Leave it to others to have doubts about you.

  Callie Khouri

  Confidence, Doubt, Overcoming

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• You have to surrender to the fact that you are of too many in a highly competitive field where it is difficult to stand out. Over time, through your work, you will demonstrate who you are and what you bring to the field. Just stay with it and keep working.

  Lisa Kudrow

  Work, Fields, Facts

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• The more closed the circle, the more difficult it is for 'outsiders' to break in. Their very difficulty in entering may be taken as a sign of incompetence, a sign that the insiders were right to close their ranks.

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter

  Taken, Circles, Entering

  Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1993). “Men and Women of the Corporation”, p.68, Basic Books

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• Anger is like the blade of a butcher knife - very difficult to hold on to for long without harming yourself.

  Patti LaBelle

  Anger, Knives, Long

  Patti LaBelle, Laura Randolph Lancaster (2001). “Patti's Pearls: Lessons in Living Genuinely, Joyfully, Generously”, p.55, Hachette UK

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• Recognizing the good, not just in one's own personal circumstances, but in the world, makes anything possible. When I am asked about the important characteristics of leadership, being of good, positive mind is at the top of my list. If a leader can focus on the meritorious characteristics of other people and try to play to their strengths as well as find value in even the most difficult situation, she can inspire hope and faith in others and motivate them to move forward.

  Wilma Mankiller

  Leadership, Moving, Difficult Situations

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• There are no sick people in North Oxford. They are either dead or alive. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference, that's all.

  Barbara Pym

  Oxford, Differences, People

  Barbara Pym (1986). “Crampton Hodnet”, MacMillan Publishing Company

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• Every writer's difficult journey is a movement from silence to speech. We must be intensely private and interior in order to find a voice and a vision - and we must bring our work to an outside world where the market, or public outrage, or even government censorship can destroy our voice.

  Sara Paretsky

  Journey, Voice, Government

  Sara Paretsky (2007). “Writing in an Age of Silence”, Verso Books

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• It is more difficult ... to rule the King's favorites than for the favorites to rule the King.

  Marjorie Bowen

  Kings

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• It has always been more difficult for a man to keep than to get; for, in the one case, fortune aids, which often assists injustice; but, in the other case, sense is required. Therefore, we often see a person deficient in cleverness rise to wealth; and then, from want of sense, roll head over heels to the bottom.

  Giambattista Basile

  Men, Want, Injustice

  Giambattista Basile, John Edward Taylor, George Cruikshank (1850). “The Pentamerone, Or the Story of Stories Fun for the Little Ones Translated from the Neapolitan by John Edward Taylor”, p.338

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• To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to the society but not wantonly destructive, moreover, it is more difficult for Government to quell it by superior force.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Government, Cities, Destroying

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• So many people seem to imagine that because the actual tools of writing are easily accessible, it is less difficult than the other arts. This is entirely an illusion.

  Vera Brittain

  Art, Writing, People

  Vera Brittain (1947). “On becoming a writer”

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• It is difficult to be yourself on court, as you become very involved in the match and very focused.

  Dominika Cibulkova

  Being Yourself, Court, Involved

  "Q&A: Dominika Cibulkova on Xperia Hot Shots". Interview with Ellen J. Horrow, www.usatoday.com. March 20, 2011.

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• Panic is not an effective long-term organizing strategy.

  Starhawk

  Stress, Long, Panic

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• Magic is the craft of shaping, the craft of the wise, exhilarating, dangerous - the ultimate adventure. The power of magic should not be underestimated. It works, often in ways that are unexpected and difficult to control.

  Starhawk

  Wise, Adventure, Magic

  Starhawk (1999). “Spiral Dance: Slipcase”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• New ideas are difficult just because they are new. Repetition has somehow plastered over the gaps and inconsistencies in the old ones, and the new cannot penetrate.

  Joan Robinson

  Ideas, Gaps, Repetition

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• There are some words I find impossibly difficult ... 'Love,' 'feeling' and especially 'happiness' are at the head of the list. This is not because I haven't experienced any of them but because whenever I think about using the words I don't really know what anyone means by them. I'd find it easier to sit down and write a book about each (coming, obviously, to no conclusion) than to use them casually in speech or writing.

  Jenny Diski

  Book, Writing, Mean

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• More broadly, strategic alliances are more difficult to manage and coordinate than single ventures; the potential for misunderstanding and disagreement, particularly between partners from different cultures, is great. Certainly many such alliances are short lived.

  Peter Dicken

  Alliances, Venture, Different

  "Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy". Book by Peter Dicken, 1986.

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• I am having a very difficult time. Things happen unexpectedly.

  Koki Hirota

  Difficult Times, Happens, Things Happen

  "The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire". Book by John Toland, p.49, 2003.

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