It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service.
 Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1885). copy citation

Context

“I assured him that I had no thought of substituting any one for him. As to Sherman, he could not be spared from the West.
This incident gave me even a more favorable opinion of Meade than did his great victory at Gettysburg the July before. It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service.
Meade's position afterwards proved embarrassing to me if not to him. He was commanding an army and, for nearly a year previous to my taking command of all the armies, was in supreme command of the Army of the Potomac—except from the authorities at Washington.” source

Meaning and analysis

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