Amateur Quotes

My mother was an amateur singer, my father was an amateur drunk. (Ozzy Osbourne)
Every artist was first an amateur. View quote
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit. View quote
Richard Bach
A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells. View quote
Grandma Moses
In love as in sport, the amateur status must be strictly maintained. View quote
Robert Graves
Two and two continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. View quote
James McNeill Whistler
The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist. View quote
Steven Pressfield
A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn't feel like it; an amateur is one who can't when he does feel like it. View quote
James Agate
I would hate to think I am not an amateur. An amateur is one who loves what he is doing. Very often, I'm afraid, the professional hates what he is doing. So, I'd rather be an amateur. View quote
Yehudi Menuhin
I saw rich beggars and poor beggars, proud beggars and humble beggars, fat beggars and thin beggars, healthy beggars and sick beggars, whole beggars and crippled beggars, wise beggars and stupid beggars. I saw amateur beggars and professional beggars. A professional beggar is a beggar who begs for a living. View quote
William Saroyan
It is a misfortune of the times that all of us must needs be amateur economists-including, and perhaps especially, the professionals. (Benjamin Graham)
It's like people inviting you to come along to a church service or an amateur orchestra. They're hoping that you'll join. People are recruiters at heart, you know. It makes them feel more comfortable to see the ranks of their particular enthusiasm swelling. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can't break. View quote
Bruce Schneier
The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. View quote
Steven Pressfield
I've had different opportunities in my life, but I've tried to maintain the spirit of an amateur. Our culture roots everything in the barometer of success and how much money you make. But if you really just aspire to a life in the arts, it's really not a barometer at all. View quote
Ethan Hawke
An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint. View quote
Ben Shahn
If there is an amateur reader still left in the world - or anybody who just reads and runs - I ask him or her, with untellable affection and gratitude, to split the dedication of this book four ways with my wife and children. View quote
J. D. Salinger
I do small cameos here and there but nothing that requires more than a paragraph of talking, because I'm just an amateur. The movie is a whole different reality. View quote
Richard Price
Obviously the current approach on steroids both in professional sports and amateur sports is not working. View quote
Armand Hammer
So long as you're not a snap, you're safe. (Nykyrian) Snap...Syn used that term. (Kiara) Single. Naïve. Amateur. Person. (Nykyrian) View quote
Sherrilyn Kenyon
If money can't be made reporting and writing articles, then professionals simply can't do it anymore. Unless we adopt the position that the amateur blogosphere is really capable of taking on the role that the 'New York Times' and CNN play, then we do need solutions for paying for content. (Douglas Rushkoff)
As a professional journalist who nonetheless champions a 'people's' Internet, I am happy to compete against the thousands of amateur bloggers out there reporting and commenting on the same stories I do. View quote
Douglas Rushkoff
Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be. View quote
Edward Weston
Professional standards, the standards of ambition and selfishness, are always sliding downward toward expense, ostentation, and mediocrity. They tend always to narrow the ground of judgment. But amateur standards, the standards of love, are always straining upward toward the humble and the best. They enlarge the ground of judgment. The context of love is the world. View quote
Wendell Berry
American politics used to be an amateur sport. But somewhere along the way, we handed over to professionals all the things people used to do for free. View quote
Bob Schieffer