A Quote by J. G. Holland

Every man who can be a first-rate something -- as every man can be who is a man at all -- has no right to be a fifth-rate something; for a fifth-rate something is not better than a first-rate nothing.

J. G. Holland

Quote Topics

Better Every Every Man Fifth First First-Rate Man Nothing Rate Right Something Than

Quote Author

J. G. Holland
American - Novelist
July 24, 1819 - October 12, 1881

Nothing can injure a man's writing if he's a first-rate writer. If a man is not a first-rate writer, there's not anything can help it much. The problem does not apply if he is not first rate because he has already sold his soul for a swimming pool.

William Faulkner

I once did something right. I played first-rate basketball. I really did. And after you're first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick out of being second-rate.

John Updike

No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

Walter Bagehot

If you go to a second-rate place, and you are first-rate, it is very difficult to do first-rate work because you do not get that critical feedback you need for first-rate work on a daily basis.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

The qualities of a second-rate writer can easily be defined, but a first-rate writer can only be experienced. It is just the thing in him which escapes analysis that makes him first-rate.

Willa Cather

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

Abraham Maslow

First-rate science fiction was, and remains, more interesting than second-rate art.

Clive James

There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive.

B. C. Forbes

There are three things you need to do as a CEO-founder. Think strategically, drive design, and drive technology. Some people who are really good at one can build a pretty foundational company. Most people who are very successful are good at two. But Jack is the only person in the Valley I've met who's all three. He's a first-rate strategist, a first-rate designer, and a first-rate technologist.

Keith Rabois

We book our exports forward for more than a year, and so we have a fixed rate. We do not get the spot rate that we see in the market every day.

Baba Kalyani

It's better to read first rate science fiction than second rate science-it's a lot more fun, and no more likely to be wrong.

Martin Rees

A book that I rate only second in importance in evolution theory to Darwin 's Origin (this as joined with its supplement Of Man), and also rate as undoubtedly one of the greatest books of the twentieth century