Prodigies Quotes

• There's a stark difference between the words 'prodigy' and 'genius.' Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do.

  John Green

  Differences, People, Genius

  John Green (2006). “An Abundance of Katherines”, Dutton Childrens Books

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• Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Hate, Shoulders, Young

  Desiderius Erasmus (1986). “Literary and Educational Writings: Panegyricus and Philippum Austriaeducem. Moriae encomium. Dialogus Julius exclusus e coelis. Institutio principis christiani. Querela pacis”

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• For every child prodigy that you know about, at least 50 potential ones have burned out before you even heard about them.

  Itzhak Perlman

  Children, Burned, Heard

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• The prodigy who fades is an old story. But the prodigy who sets a high mark when young and then hits that mark, or exceeds it, over and over again, for a full lifespan, is truly remarkable, and worth celebrating.

  John Baird

  Stories, Celebrate, Mark

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• Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.

  Harold Bloom

  Mediocrity, Want, Failing

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• Chess, like mathematics and music, is a nursery for child prodigies.

  Jamie Murphy

  Children, Chess, Nursery

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• Nobody told me I was a child prodigy.

  Herbie Hancock

  Children

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• SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Life, Ocean, Musical

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.215, University of Georgia Press

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• There is no prodigy in our profession. If you see all the great singer of the past, none of them are.

  Luciano Pavarotti

  Past, Singers, Profession

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• A kindly gesture bestowed by us on an animal arouses prodigies of understanding and gratitude.

  Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

  Gratitude, Animal, Understanding

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• I feel like it has gone very fast for me, but I feel like it wasn't instantaneous, at all. I was getting a lot of rejections. I just got very lucky and it happened quickly for me. I don't feel like I'm a prodigy or something.

  Anthony Doerr

  Rejection, Lucky, Gone

  "Off the Page: Anthony Doerr". The Washington Post Live Online discussion, www.washingtonpost.com. October 14, 2004.

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• If I win, I'm a prodigy. If I lose, then I'm crazy. That's the way history is written.

  Eoin Colfer

  Crazy, Winning, Fowl

  Eoin Colfer (2003). “Artemis Fowl”, Miramax

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• Prodigy only feeds on prodigy, fantasy on fantasy.

  Domenico Gnoli

  Fantasy

  Source: observer.com

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• Look how the world's poor people are amazed at apparitions, signs and prodigies!

  William Shakespeare

  People, Looks, World

  William Shakespeare (1866). “The Works of William Shakespeare”, p.470

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• I've always been interested in exploring the concept of child prodigies. When I was younger, I wrote a story about Mozart as a child and I just always loved this idea of young people who are able to take control of their lives and bring a whole lot of change at such a young age.

  Marie Lu

  Children, Ideas, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The word "prodigy" was thrown around a lot, but I didn't understand what that meant, or the weight of it. It didn't really mean anything to me, until I was older and could look back on it.

  Misty Copeland

  Mean, Looks, Weight

  Source: collider.com

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• It is reported of that prodigy of parts, Monsieur Pascal, that till the decay of his health had impaired his memory, he forgot nothing of what he had done, read, or thought, in any part of his rational age. This is a privilege so little known to most men, that it seems almost incredible to those who, after the ordinary way, measure all others by themselves; but yet, when considered, may help us to enlarge our thoughts towards greater perfections of it, in superior ranks of spirits.

  John Locke

  Memories, Men, Perfection

  John Locke (1854). “The Philosophical Works of John Locke”, p.268

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• Here is how to handle being a feral prodigy.

  David Foster Wallace

  Handle

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• I was never a prodigy. I was never a child genius.

  Mara Wilson

  Children, Genius

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• In the career of a prodigy there invariably comes a time when it is compelled to relinquish being very clever for a child, and has to enter the business of life in competition with adults.

  Miles Franklin

  Children, Clever, Careers

  Miles Franklin (2014). “Some Everyday Folk and Dawn”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

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• The ancients of the ideal description, instead of trying to turn their impracticable chimeras, as does the modern dreamer, into social and political prodigies, deposited them in great works of art, which still live while states and constitutions have perished, bequeathing to posterity not shameful defects but triumphant successes.

  Herman Melville

  Art, Political, Dreamer

  Herman Melville (1987). “Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860: Volume Nine, Scholarly Edition”, p.409, Northwestern University Press

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• I was born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know anything else ... I was not a Child Prodigy, because a Child Prodigy is a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows up.

  Will Rogers

  Children, Growing Up, Kids

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• As the skies appear to a man, so is his mind. Some see only clouds there; some, prodigies and portents; some rarely look up at all; their heads, like the brutes,' are directed toward Earth. Some behold there serenity, purity, beauty ineffable. The world runs to see the panorama, when there is a panorama in the sky which few go to see.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Running, Men, Clouds

  Henry David Thoreau, Barry Andrews (2005). “True Harvest: Readings from Henry David Thoreau for Every Day of the Year”, p.29, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

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• Nothing becomes reality in the political life of a nation that was not present in its literature as spirit.

  Hugo von Hofmannsthal

  Life, Reality, Political

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• There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Men, Poor

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