Ralph W. Sockman Quotes

Do not talk a little on many subjects, but much on a few.

I don't believe in doing everything and being mediocre at all of them. I believe in being good at one thing.

I'm not the kind of guy who dabbles in a lot of things.

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

One man cannot practice many arts with success.

Most people are good at too many things. And when you say someone is focused, more often than not what you actually mean is they're very narrow.

No one intellect should ever strive for distinction in more than one pursuit. Those who boast of preeminence in many arts are either divinely endowed or utterly shameless or simply mad.

I believe in doing what I am best at. I don't want to waste my energy in other things; instead, I would put all that in reaching the next level in a craft that I love the most.

Knowing one thing well empowers you and gives you a set of tricks to the trade that you can apply across the board. Go deep, and it will serve you when you make your choices about where you want to leave your mark.

I don't want to be jack of all, master of none. I want to focus completely and excel as an actor with every project.

When you have a deep focus, you can't go wrong at all. Not when you're an expert at what you do.

The more I spend at one position, the more I can dive into those details.

Grit, in a word, is stamina. But it's not just stamina in your effort. It's also stamina in your direction, stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you're not really going to get anywhere. You'll never become an expert.

There's not enough said about the beauty of being able to focus on what you do well.

Sometimes it's better if you can play in only one position. You see that with other players. These guys specialise in one position and they can completely concentrate.

Better to master one mountain than a thousand foothills.

It's important to focus on what we do best and master one craft at a time.

If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything.

No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.

To understand one thing well is better than understanding many things by halves.

Clarity breeds mastery.

The shoemaker makes a good shoe because he makes nothing else.

A man cannot be professor of zoölogy on one day and of chemistry on the next, and do good work in both. As in a concert all are musicians,-one plays one instrument, and one another, but none all in perfection.

No one achieves greatness by becoming a generalist. You don't hone a skill by diluting your attention to its development. The only way to get to the next level is focus.

Focus on just a few things, and do them better than anybody else.