Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement. Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes,thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don't respect? Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?

Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently. Some people say there are true things to be found, some people say all kinds of things can be proved. I don't believe them. The only thing for certain is how complicated it all is, like string full of knots. It's all there but hard to find the beginning and impossible to fathom the end. The best you can do is admire the cat's cradle, and maybe knot it up a bit more.

I admire those who do good and expect nothing in return.

You read and write and sing and experience, thinking that one day these things will build the character you admire to live as. You love and lose and bleed best you can, to the extreme, hoping that one day the world will read you like the poem you want to be.

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.

Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, protray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. Look at her, Ben. Growing old doesn't matter to you and me; we were never meant to be admired-but it does to them.

All children should be taught to unconditionally accept, approve, admire, appreciate, forgive, trust, and ultimately, love their own person.

Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?

A girl can still admire, can't she? Even those who can't afford to go in the store can still window-shop. Right? Knowing he wasn't for me didn't mean I couldn't covet the merchandise.

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.

Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it you are lost.

I have no idols. I admire work dedication and competence.

I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being.

We all admire the wisdom of people who come to us for advice.

Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom they will discover your ignorance.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.

When you read a piece of writing that you admire send a note of thanks to the author.

When I was a teacher teachers would come into my classroom and admire my desk on which lay nothing whatever whereas theirs were heaped with papers and books.

I think the success of a talk show depends on how true it is to the personality of the person hosting it. The shows I really admire like 'Oprah' and 'Ellen ' are distinctively like their hosts so I think my show will be successful only if we try to stay consistent to my own sense of myself.

Like so many American families our families weren't asking for much. They didn't begrudge anyone else's success or care that others had much more than they did... in fact they admired it.

I admired in others the strength that I lacked myself.

Tina Turner is someone that I admire because she made her strength feminine and sexy.

I think having a vision can make someone an influential man. I'm not talking about acting or anything like that I'm talking about people I admire whether it's a writer or a musician or a sports figure or a politician whatever.