Garbage and greatness

From out of nowhere a quote pops into my head: "People are a mixture of garbage and greatness. Listen to their garbage; speak to their greatness."

I heard it 25 years ago from a man who was a proof point of the first sentence and a practitioner of the second. The usefulness of his advice lies in the semicolon, which acts as a stop sign. So you read the sentence like this: Listen to their garbage (STOP!) speak to their greatness. In other words, don't DO anything with the garbage -- just listen to it, then speak to the greatness. If you do anything at all with the garbage, you lose.