A Quote by David Lindsay-Abaire

We have this myth that if you work hard, you can accomplish anything. It's not a very American thing to say, but I don't think that's true. It's true for a lot of people, but you need other things to succeed. You need luck, you need opportunity, and you need the life skills to recognize what an opportunity is.

David Lindsay-Abaire

Quote Topics

Accomplish American Anything Hard Life Life Skills Lot Luck Myth Need Opportunity Other People Recognize Say Skills Succeed Thing Things Think True Very Work Work Hard

Quote Author

David Lindsay-Abaire
American - Playwright
Born: November 30, 1969

Opportunity shies away from need, but opportunity is attracted by talent and ability. What you don't want to happen is opportunity to turn cool on you. You don't want to offend opportunity. So the only thing you present to opportunity is ability, performance and skill. Don't present need to opportunity.

Jim Rohn

America is the land of opportunity. We need to be vigilant in ensuring that each and every American has the opportunity to acquire the skills to compete and to see those skills rewarded in the marketplace.

Henry Paulson

We need to walk, just as birds need to fly. We need to be around other people. We need beauty. We need contact with nature. And most of all, we need not to be excluded. We need to feel some sort of equality.

Enrique Penalosa

We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen. It is on that side of life that it is desirable to put the emphasis at the present time. If that side be strengthened, the other side will take care of itself.

Calvin Coolidge

It's like everything in football - and life. You need to look, you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space, you need to help others. It's very simple in the end.

Johan Cruyff

I just prefer instrumental. I don't need to hear what other people are singing. And if I need music as a backdrop to work or to think, I need to have that part of the brain clear - I don't need people feeding their fantasies into my vision.

Lydia Lunch

This world is changing enormously. In any position in a company you need to work very hard on learning new skills every day, but you also need to unlearn some of the old skills from the past.

Paul Polman

Asian players are very eager to work hard, but they don't have the physicality of the Europeans, so they might actually need to work twice as hard. With street football, their skills will improve a lot, and so will their tactical awareness, because by playing within a limited space, you need to be very focused on your game.

Edgar Davids

The late W. Edwards Deming, guru of Quality management, once declared, 'The most important things we need to manage can't be measured.' If that’s true of what we need to manage, it should be even more obvious that it’s true of what we need to teach.

Alfie Kohn

I fully recognize we need to improve the path to citizenship, just as we need to value the hard work of folks who become American citizens legally.

Bill Flores

Mathematicians need proofs to keep them honest. All technical areas of human activity need reality checks. It is not enough to believe that something works, that it is a good way to proceed, or even that it is true. We need to know why it's true. Otherwise, we won't know anything at all.

Ian Stewart

That's another thing," she said. "You no longer need other people in your life once you have found your true love. No wonder Magnus feels he cannot open up to you, when you rely so heavily upon these other people. When love is true, you should meet each other people. When love is true, you should meet each other's every desire, every need - A re you listening, young A lexander? For my advice is precious, and not given often.

Cassandra Clare

I think in every industry you need to have a lot of talent; you need to have a lot of drive, but you need a little bit of luck.

Jamie Lawson

If children are hungry, they need to be fed. It's hard to learn if your stomach is growling. We need to take that on. If students can't see the blackboard, need eyeglasses, we need to do that. If students need a social worker or counselor to work through the challenges they're facing at home in the community, we need to do that.

Arne Duncan

People need role models, and they need to feel that there's this opportunity to learn. They need to have people that will stick up for them. I want to be a part of that.