Tom Hollander

Actors, who have no real sense of who they are or what they want, have long known that not just their gender but every aspect of their identity is on a spectrum. They can be anything they are asked to be. They aspire to a protean state, shape-shifting like high summer clouds.

English Actor

Maryanne Wolf

There are no genes or areas in the brain devoted uniquely to reading. Rather, our ability to read represents our brain's protean capacity to learn something outside our repertoire by creating new circuits that connect existing circuits in a different way.

American Educator

Paul Johnson

Indeed it is the protean ability of Western civilization to be self-critical and self-correcting - not only in producing wealth but over the whole range of human activities - that constitutes its most decisive superiority over any of its rivals.

British Journalist

George Packer

Part of the mystique of blogs is their protean quality: They work both sides of the divide between politics and media, further blurring the already fuzzy distinctions between reporter, pundit, political operative, activist, and citizen.

American Novelist

Michael Paterniti

The older we get, the more we desire to reclaim our body at 25; we'll take our face at 35, the elasticity of our mind at its most powerful, to return ourselves somehow to our most vital moment of rigor and protean creation.

American Writer

Asa Gray

This substance, which is manifold in its forms and protean in its transformations, has, in its state of living matter, one physiological name which has become familiar, that of protoplasm.

American Scientist

John Ortberg

Sin is protean. It is a cancer that keeps mutating, and just when you think you have killed off one form, it turns out a deadlier strain yet is threatening your heart.

American Clergyman

Joshua Cohen

What do I want from a book? Something protean, something always on-the-move-or-make - shape-shifting, semantically-and-syntactically-shifting.

Alan Kay

The protean nature of the computer is such that it can act like a machine or like a language to be shaped and exploited.

Protean suggests great flexibility in adapting to new situations or roles quickly.

Implies Flexibility

Sometimes 'protean' may suggest instability or lack of consistent character.

Not Always Positive

The word is derived from Proteus, a Greek god who could change his shape, suggesting many forms.

Origin Story

Protean can describe someone with talents or abilities in a variety of fields.

Diverse Abilities

Protean implies not just multiple talents but also the capacity to develop new ones.

Adaptation and Growth

In some cultures, being protean is highly valued as it indicates resourcefulness and skill.