#traits

It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#always #detest #egotism #failure #feeling

There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#photography #portraits #beauty

I love that sassy name! Zoozle! ↗

— Eileen Granfors

#love

Creditor. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the Financial Straits and dreaded for their desolating incursions. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#creditor #dreaded #dwelling #financial #savages

I don't know what I'll be like when I'm 60. I already have the traits of a retired gentleman. ↗

— David Walliams

#gentleman #i #know #like #retired

I was a bartender for a long time, so I know how to make drinks, but I'm more likely to offer them than to have them. I think this is one of the reasons why I get to live longer than my great-grandmother did, and why I get to produce more writing than she did, and why my marriage isn't in dire straits. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#did #dire #drinks #get #how

I'm very envious of the few artists who are any good and still do portraits. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#artists #envious #few #good #i

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence. ↗

— Octavia Butler

#crap #get #good #gradually #i

Overtime, hatchery fish tend to show signs of domestication and these traits adapted to the hatchery environment can make it more difficult to survive in the wild. ↗

— Norm Dicks

#difficult #environment #fish #make #more

Our policy for the last many years has been to deter the Chinese government in Beijing from ever coming into the position where they thought they had enough leverage over the U.S. to cross the Straits of Taiwan. ↗

— Bob Filner

#beijing #chinese #chinese government #coming #cross