Skill excels when talent idles.

Meaning: This sentence means that if a talented person doesn't work hard, someone with less talent but who works hard can achieve more.

Choice of Words: Skill is a learned ability to do something well. Excel means to be very good at something. Idle means to be lazy or inactive. When you put them together, "Skill excels when talent idles" means that hard work and practice can beat natural talent if the talented person is not working hard.

Alternative Expressions

Practice makes perfect.

Meaning: It's like when you want to learn how to ride a bike. At first, you might fall down a lot. But if you keep practicing, you will eventually be able to ride without any problems.

Choice of Words: The word "practice" refers to the act of doing something repeatedly in order to improve one's skill or ability. "Makes" is a verb that means to cause something to happen or to create something. "Perfect" means to be without any flaws or errors. When we put these words together, the sentence means that if you do something over and over again, you will eventually become very good at it.

Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Meaning: It's like when you have a homework assignment. If you put it off until tomorrow, you might forget about it or you might not have enough time to finish it. But if you do it today, you can get it out of the way and you can relax knowing that it's done.

Choice of Words: The word "put off" means to delay or postpone something. "Until" means up to a certain time or point. "Tomorrow" refers to the day after today. "What" is a pronoun that refers to something that has been mentioned before. "Can" is a modal verb that indicates ability or possibility. "Do" is a verb that means to perform an action. "Today" refers to the present day. When we put these words together, the sentence means that we should not delay doing something that we can do right now.

Related Expressions