Amateurs Quotes

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case. ~ Chuck Close

History - the product, not the raw material - is a bottle with a label. For many years now, the emphasis of historical discussion has been laid upon the label (its iconography, its target-group of customers) and upon the interesting problems of manufacturing bottle-glass. The contents, on the other hand, are tasted in a knowing, perfunctory way and then spat out again. Only amateurs swallow them. ~ Neal Ascherson

Many amateurs believe that plants and animals reproduce on a one-way route toward perfection. Translating the idea in social terms, they believe that companies and organizations are, thanks to competition (and the discipline of the quarterly report), irreversibly heading toward betterment. The strongest will survive; the weakest will become extinct. As to investors and traders, they believe that by letting them compete, the best will prosper and the worst will go learn a new craft (like pumping gas or, sometimes, dentistry). Things are not as simple as that. We will ignore the basic misuse of Darwinian ideas in the fact that organizations do not reproduce like living members of nature - Darwinian ideas are about reproductive fitness, not about survival. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Anytime you're afraid to try something new ... just remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the titanic. ~ David Drake

Hiding is for amateurs. ~ Ally Carter

I'd known cruelty in a school - cruelty that would keep these amateurs up all night. But this kind of scene - crowds batting around a person because they thought he was weak - happened to be my personal trigger. ~ Laura Anderson Kurk

Callie scrambled from under the covers, dashed around the bed, and flung herself into Luce's arms. "They kept telling me you were going to be okay, but in that lying, we're-also-completely-terrified-we're-just-not-going-to-explain-a-word-to-you kind of way. Do you even realize how thoroughly spooky that was? It was like you physically dropped off the face of the Earth-"
Luce hugged her back tightly. As far as Callie knew, Luce had been gone only since the night before.
"Okay, you two," Molly growled, pulling Luce away from Callie, "you can OMG your faces off later. I didn't lie in your bed in that cheap polyester wig all night enacting Luce-with-stomach-flue so you guys could blow our cover now." She rolled her eyes. "Amateurs."
"Hold on. You did what?" Luce asked.
"After you...disappeared," Callie said breathlessly, "we knew we could never explain it to your parents. I mean, I could barely fathom it after seeing it with my own eyes. When Gabbe fixed up the backyard, I told your parents you felt sick and had gone to bed, and Molly pretended to be you and-"
"Lucky I found this in your closet." Molly twirled a short wavy black wig around one finger. "Halloween remnant?"
"Wonder Woman." Luce winced, regretting her middle school Halloween costume, and not for the first time.
"Well, it worked."
It was strange to see Molly-who'd once sided with Lucifer-helping her. But even Molly, like Cam and Roland, didn't want to fall again. So here they w ~ Lauren Kate

Oh, my poor, sweet cousin from Oklahoma," Tonya said, shaking her head. "You, my dear, are in big trouble." "I am?" Kylie asked, turning to her friend, wearing her panic all over her face. "You're in love. And as I've said before, this shit ain't for amateurs. ~ Caisey Quinn

Most nervous I've ever been is probably the 2007 Walker Cup. I was a little boy playing with these 8 or 9 other guys that were the best amateurs in the country. ~ Rickie Fowler

He had started out the way nearly all writers do, and I'd seen it a hundred times--amateurs transformed into gibbering wrecks by actually being published; what once they'd done for fun ruined forever by the burden of expectation, the hope of sales and good reviews and riches, hobbyists turned authors made bitter by the knowledge that they'd missed their main chance. ~ Colin Bateman

Silicon Valley, "the largest legal creation of wealth in history," was built largely by unprofessional amateurs using math, sand, and the institutions of freedom. The Soviet Union had the greatest mathematicians on earth, and plenty of sand, but without the institutions of freedom their brilliant mathematicians were not empowered to create those devices that are changing the world. ~ Michael Strong

Parties sickened me. I hated the game-playing, the dirty play, the flirting, the amateurs drunks, the bores. ~ Charles Bukowski

For we are all amateurs at life, but if we do not focus too much on our mistakes, a miraculous picture emerges. And we learn that it's not the beauty of the image that warrants our gratitude
it's the chance to paint. ~ Richard Paul Evans

The artistic temperament is a disease that affects amateurs. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Who gives a damn about being remembered? That's really for amateurs. ~ Gore Vidal

In fact, these reference works, with their careful attention to history, literature, and actual usage, are the most adamant debunkers of grammatical nonsense. (This is less true of style sheets drawn up by newspapers and professional societies, and of manuals written by amateurs such as critics and journalists, which tend to mindlessly reproduce the folklore of previous guides.) ~ Steven Pinker

An astute trader aims to enter the market during quiet times and take profits during wild times. That, of course, is the total opposite of how amateurs act: they jump in or out when prices begin to run, but grow bored and not interested when prices are sleepy. ~ Anonymous

Marathon running, like golf, is a game for players, not winners. That is why Callaway sells golf clubs and Nike sells running shoes. But running is unique in that the world's best racers are on the same course, at the same time, as amateurs, who have as much chance of winning as your average weekend warrior would scoring a touchdown in the NFL. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

War is a simple matter compared with revolution. War is an applied science, with well-defined principles tested in history; analogous solutions may be found from ballista to H-bomb. But every revolution is a freak, a mutant, a monstrosity, its conditions never to be repeated and its operations carried out by amateurs and individualists. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Amateurs train until they get it right.
Professionals train until they cannot get it wrong. ~ Jose N Harris

Of course, they don't like him! Liking is for ninny-hammers. Real men elicit rancor." Pausing for a moment of deep consideration, she added, "Loathing, even. But never liking."
"Hatred, perhaps?" suggested Mary's brother-in-law, hiding his amused smile behind a tone of excessive gravity.
Mrs. Fustian was not impressed. "Certainly not. Any common laborer can hate. True connoisseurs prefer more subtle shades of aversion. ~ Lauren Willig

Like one of his heroes, Tom Waits, whenever Yorke feels like his songwriting is getting too comfortable or stale, he'll pick up an instrument he doesn't know how to play and try to write with it. This is yet another trait of amateurs - they'll use whatever tools they can get their hands on to try to get their ideas into the world. "I'm an artist, man," said John Lennon. "Give me a tuba, and I'll get you something out of it. ~ Austin Kleon

Caring for others tends to be the first cut when we review our personal time budget. It does not necessarily fulfill the goals of my ambition; it will not pave the way for my success; it takes away from my own depleted emotional resources. It is an imposition in every way. To some of us, it is an inconvenience from which we unashamedly run. We have become experts in maintaining a grand scope of friendships and amateurs in genuine intimacy and care. Unwittingly, we have sacrificed everything on the altar of self-sufficiency - only to discover that we have sold our souls to isolation. ~ Sandy Oshiro Rosen

I hate traveling with amateurs. ~ Rachel Caine

Don't you know yet, he said, that an idle and selfish class loves to see mischief being made, even if it is made at its own expense? Its own life being all a matter of pose and gesture, it is unable to realize the power and the danger of a real movement and of words that have no sham meaning. It is all fun and sentiment. It is sufficient, for instance, to point out the attitude of the old French aristocracy towards the philosophers whose words were preparing the Great Revolution. Even in England, where you have some common-sense, a demagogue has only to shout loud enough and long enough to find some backing in the very class he is shouting at. You, too, like to see mischief being made.
The demagogue carries the amateurs of emotion with him. Amateurism in this, that, and the other thing is a delightfully easy way of killing time, and feeding one's own vanity--the silly vanity of being abreast with the ideas of the day after to-morrow. Just as good and otherwise harmless people will join you in ecstasies over your collection without having the slightest notion in what its marvellousness really consists. [The informer] ~ Joseph Conrad

And when I protested a bit more, I remember he said, 'My dear Lady Ponsonby, there's nothing immoral about this. Art is only immoral when practiced by amateurs. It's the same with medicine. You wouldn't refuse to undress before your doctor, would you? ~ Roald Dahl

I'm 0 for 3 with marriage - the scoreboard doesn't lie, never has. So what we all have is a marriage of the heart. To sully or contaminate or radically disrespect this union with a shameful contract is something that I will leave to the amateurs and the Bible grippers. ~ Charlie Sheen

Inspiration is for amateurs," Close says. "The rest of us just show up and get to work. ~ Mason Currey

I can only surmise about what Liebling would make of today's pugilistic dark ages. In his era, fighters fought rematches of close fights, even title fights, almost automatically. Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta met six times, inconceivable for champions today. In the 1950s a quality pro thought himself underemployed if he had only eight or ten bouts a year, and the amateur scene was thriving. Nowadays pros who make a living from boxing are about as common as Yetis, and amateurs can't get enough fights to learn the rudiments of the craft. ~ A.J. Liebling

Professionals have coaches. Amateurs do not ~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

Sitting around waiting for inspiration is for amateurs. If you're a professional, you show up every day at work. ~ Mara Altman

Film and television have convinced too many writers that heaps of dialogue make novels more like movies and therefore good. This is an amateur's fantasy, and it has induced some writers to surrender the few advantages they have over cinematic storytelling. The moviemaker is stuck with what the camera can see and the microphone can hear. You have more freedom. You can summarize situations. You can forthrightly give us people's histories. You can concentrate ten years into ten words. You can move anywhere you like outside real time. You can tell us - just tell us - what people are thinking and feeling. Yes, abundant dialogue can lighten a story, make it more readable and sparkle with wonders. But it is pitiably inadequate before what it is not suited to do. ~ Stephen Koch

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs. ~ Herodotus

Jet lag is for amateurs. ~ Dick Clark

I can't stand callow amateurs who aren't sufficiently interested in the craft of advertising to assume the posture of students. ~ David Ogilvy

However, he didn't have a high opinion of the average man's ability as a fighter. The majority of men couldn't fight at all and even most outlaws were the merest amateurs when it came to battle. Few could shoot well, and even fewer had any mind for strategy. ~ Larry McMurtry

The history of creation is but a succession of battles between amateurs of genius-inspired heretics- and orthodox professionals. ~ Jacques Barzun

The Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs. ~ Alan Kay

I think for a lot of amateurs, their alignment is always out. ~ Karrie Webb

Don't fear the pros. The pros know what they're doing, and do it cleanly. Fear the amateurs. ~ Taylor Adams

One common adage ... that is completely wrongheaded is: You can't go broke taking profits. That's precisely how many traders do go broke. While amateurs go broke by taking large losses, professionals go broke by taking small profits. ~ William Eckhardt

What a mistake that had been, to create a construct [AI] that could suffer. He knew that now. Life, pain, death, they were no playthings. Biology was serious business, not for amateurs and foolish gods. ~ David Marusek

Amateurs do things 'till they get it right. Pros do it 'till they can't get it wrong. ~ Steven Jackson

In one of the Welsh counties is a small village called A
. It is somewhat removed from the high road, and is, therefore, but little known to those luxurious amateurs of the picturesque, who view nature through the windows of a carriage and four. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Amateurs go broke taking large losses, professionals go broke taking small profits. ~ William Eckhardt

The amateurs discuss tactics: the professionals discuss logistics ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Amateurs built the ark. Professionals built he Titanic. ~ Elizabeth May

She had been invited to dinners and luncheons and dances, but their doings, she told Dirk, had bored her.

"They're nice," she said, "but they don't have much fun. They're all trying to be something they're not. And that's such hard work. The women were always explaining that they lived in Chicago because their husband's business was here. They all do things pretty well  -  dance or paint or ride or write or sing  -  but not well enough. They're professional amateurs, trying to express something they don't feel; or that they don't feel strongly enough to make it worth while expressing. ~ Edna Ferber

My father had seen in a flash that they were all gunmen, so he told me to stand still, although we were right in a possible line of fire. If near a gun-fight and the weapons are wielded by amateurs, run for your life; if professionals are handling the trigger, stand still - they know where they are shooting. ~ William S. Hart

The world may or may not need another cookbook, but it needs all the lovers – amateurs – it can get. It is a gorgeous old place, full of clownish graces and beautiful drolleries, and it has enough textures, tastes, and smells to keep us intrigued for more time than we have. Unfortunately, however, our response to its loveliness is not always delight: It is, far more often than it should be, boredom. And that is not only odd, it is tragic; for boredom is not neutral – it is the fertilizing principle of unloveliness.

In such a situation, the amateur – the lover, the man who thinks heedlessness is a sin and boredom a heresy – is just the man you need. More than that, whether you think you need him or not, he is a man who is bound, by his love, to speak. If he loves Wisdom or the Arts, so much the better for him and for all of us. But if he loves only the way meat browns or onions peel, if he delights simply in the curds of his cheese or the color of his wine, he is, by every one of those enthusiasms, commanded to speak. A silent lover is one who doesn't know his job. ~ Robert Farrar Capon

Only amateurs use short copy. ~ David Ogilvy

Hell is full of musical amateurs. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Interior decorating is a rock-hard science compared to psychology practiced by amateurs. ~ Antonin Scalia

Inner beauty is for amateurs. ~ Anne Taintor

Adepts of either Good or Evil are relatively rare in human shape. Most of us are still amateurs, which is fortunate for us all, because even moderate experts of evil can cause enough harm among humanity as it is. ~ Anonymous

Amateurs write when they are inspired. Professionals are inspired when they write. This is a subtle but important distinction. ~ Michael Hyatt

It was the end of the era of the amateur, a time when everyone had to be a bit of everything. You helped your neighbors build their homes, fight their fires, raise and butcher and preserve their own food. You knew how to repair a weapon, pull a tooth, hammer a horseshoe, and deliver a child. But industrialization fostered specialization - and it was fantastic. Trained pros were better than self-taught amateurs, and their expertise allowed them to demand and develop better tools for their crafts - tools that only they knew how to operate. Over time, a subtle cancer spread: where you have more experts, you create more bystanders. Professionals did all the fighting and fixing we used to handle ourselves; they even took over our fun, playing our sports while we sat back and watched. ~ Christopher McDougall

I love mixing amateurs and professionals. ~ Lasse Hallstrom

On one thing professionals and amateurs agree: mothers can't win. ~ Margaret Drabble

It is frankly a mistake of amateurs to believe you can gain the upper hand in a diplomatic negotiation. ~ Henry A. Kissinger

I think the Chinese are really amateurs when it comes to running markets. ~ David Wessel

In love, women are professionals, men are amateurs ~ Francois Truffaut

Life is so urgent and necessitates living slow. It's only the amateurs-and that I've been, and it's been ugly-who thinks slow and urgent are contradictory. ~ Ann Voskamp

It is amateurs who have one big bright beautiful idea that they can never abandon. Professionals know that they have to produce theory after theory before they are likely to hit the jackpot. ~ Francis Crick

and we must endeavour to persuade those who are to be the principal men of our State to go and learn arithmetic, not as amateurs, but they must carry on the study until they see the nature of numbers with the mind only; ~ Plato

I don't believe in inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. Some of the time you know you're cooking, and the rest of the time, you just do it. ~ Chuck Close

And though creative writing as an intellectual exercise may be pursued with profit by anyone, writing as a profession is not a job for amateurs, dilettantes, part-time thinkers, 25-watt feelers, the lazy, the insensitive, or the imitative. It is for the creative, and creativity implies both talent and hard work. ~ Wallace Stegner

My main objective is to prepare candidates for professional baseball; however, the majority of our graduates will go home as much better qualified amateurs. ~ Jim Evans

True artists unburden their envies and work toward encouraging amateurs. ~ Aniruddha Sastikar

It is by sitting down to write every morning that he becomes a writer. Those who do not do this remain amateurs. ~ Gerald Brenan

He's often wished that he could capture the full essence of each woman's laugh on canvas, but he settles instead, on watching how, when a woman chuckles, her head moves slightly to the left or right so that the light grazes it at a new angle and creates a new pattern of highlight and shadow. It's this subtle shifting that he finds astounding - how everything and nothing can be written on a face through its lines, through the way skin around the eyes crinkle or how the shifting of a mouth belies joy or sarcasm or simple placation. He wonders what Vermeer might have said to that girl with the pearl earring, what words could have stirred in her that wanton expression, because even amateurs understand that faces allow an entry point and that negative space is the key to any good painting: what isn't included is sometimes more important than what is. ~ Adam Gallari

As a wise man once said, "April Fools Day is for amateurs. You NEVER need an excuse to mess with people's heads." ~ Al Yankovic

I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs. ~ Charlie Sheen

No other great master has been so misunderstood by the vast majority of chess amateurs and even by many masters, as has Emanuel Lasker. ~ Jose Raul Capablanca

One giver is greater than a thousand takers.
One earner is greater than a thousand beggars.
One achiever is greater than a thousand quitters.
One performer is greater than a thousand complainers.

One learner is greater than a thousand teachers.
One creator is greater than a thousand imitators.
One leader is greater than a thousand followers.
One thinker is greater than a thousand dreamers.

One conqueror is greater than a thousand warriors.
One master is greater than a thousand amateurs.
One encourager is greater than a thousand haters.
One victor is greater than a thousand failures. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

He'd kill you all right. No sweat. But for the wrong reasons. Amateur's reasons. Of course, you'll be just as dead. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

We attracted a lot of market timers and asset allocators. I don't need those ... amateurs in my fund. ~ Martin J. Whitman

Tina returns from the bathroom and climbs into bed with a question in her eye.
"I want to talk you about something."
I get worried, but I try not to show it.
"I have a number of questions that I want to ask you. I feel like you are the only person that I can ask these questions. Do you mind?"
"No, I don't mind. Go ahead."
"Do you think that escorts are more health-conscious than most girls? Do you think that they get tested more regularly for STDs, and that they are more careful, for example, as in using condoms?"
"I definitely think that they are."
"Why do you think that?"
"The girls that I see all tell me that they get tested anywhere from every month to every three months. They always use condoms, that is, unless they trust the guy and they know that he gets tested regularly. All these girls know how to do a dick check and they screen their clients before meeting them. Therefore, I would say that the escorts that I have met are all much more health conscious than amateurs are."
"Do you get tested regularly?"
"I've told my MD that I see girls and he orders tests for me every three months, or at least twice a year at a minimum."
"I would like to dispel some of the myths about escorts. ~ Sacha Haughtee

I am very pleased to be involved with the Daniel Pearl Music Days committee because its message resonates with me on a very personal level, My own career is an example of the universal power of music, especially the power of Hip Hop, to bring people of different backgrounds together for a common purpose. I hope that my commitment to the Daniel Pearl Music Days committee will encourage all music lovers - both amateurs and professionals - to get involved with the Music Days performance network and contribute to the 'Harmony For Humanity' e-Stage. ~ Russell Simmons

Most amateurs are so worried about mis-hitting the shot or hitting it off line, they don't make an aggressive move. You'd be surprised how much better your swing will get if you let your natural athletic ability shine. So go after it. ~ Keegan Bradley

A lot of amateurs are terrified of going up against a player who is clearly better than they are. They never play their best, because they aren't comfortable. There's one surefire way to get over that, and it's to ask yourself, 'What if I beat him?' Imagine the possibility. ~ Fuzzy Zoeller

Amateurs in professional situations make me very impatient. ~ David Coverdale

Relationships is not a game of amateurs is what people say..
But they begin to foster between amateurs and become a reason to make them matured grown-ups! ~ Sujit Lalwani

Amateurs believe their enthusiasm will suffice. ~ Mason Cooley

Nobody was born a master; amateurs become experts because they did not give up on learning. You are going as far as you can if you'll learn and apply! ~ Israelmore Ayivor

Amateurs try to write in one go; professionals draft and
draft again. ~ Alastair Fowler

Amateurs quit when they are tired. Champions quit only when they have won. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

...most gentlemen of breeding considered themselves amateurs at all kinds of disciplines. Go all the way back to Jefferson, who collected fossils and wrote about botany and invented household tools and studied animals. He was an amateur anthropologist and even an amateur theologian who famously cut all the miracles out of the New Testament because he thought Jesus made a whole lot more sense without the supernatural material mucking up the good moral philosophy. ~ Jack Hitt

On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something. Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing. ~ Austin Kleon

I set myself challenges every time I work. Ideally, I approach everything as though it's the first time - with a beginner's mind and an amateur's love. ~ Willem Dafoe

We are all amateurs at grief, although sooner or later every one of us will lose someone close to us. ~ Long Litt Woon

The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it's turning us all into amateurs. Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur's spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown. ~ Austin Kleon

Amateurs… They're like of a pack of clay pigeons to the shotgun they call poetic justice. ~ Martin Reed

The world's greatest thinkers have often been amateurs; for high thinking is the outcome of fine and independent living, and for that a professional chair offers no special opportunities. ~ Havelock Ellis

It's wildly irritating to have invented something as revolutionary as sarcasm, only to have it abused by amateurs. ~ Christopher Moore

The study of combinations should enrich the analytical spirit of studious amateurs. Thereafter the most gifted among them will be able to catch some sparks of the genius of masters, and in addition some rays of the glory that is the masters. ~ Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Are we amateurs and not professionals? We know the lessons of history, we know the mistakes and we either act accordingly or collapse. Salvation lies in clarity and the courage to implement change ~ Thomas S. Power

A instant of fraternity. But outside their explosions of violence this sentiment is as foreign to them as butterflies. And this owing not so much to want of heart or intelligence as to the ideal preying on one and all. So much for the inviolable zenith where for amateurs of myth lies hidden a way out to earth and sky. ~ Samuel Beckett

Goddamn amateurs," Trigg mutters. "Ten minutes," Holiday repeats. ~ Pierce Brown

Most great art is freedom within form. Without form, we are amateurs, without freedom, we are robots. ~ Donald Miller