I have learnt that I am me, that I can do the things that, as one might put it, me can do, but I cannot do the things that me would like to do.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from the beasts.
—Heywood Hale Broun (1918–2001) American Journalist, Commentator, Actor
Ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a high degree of solemnity.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The man who occupies the first place seldom plays the principal part.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
Men are in numberless instances qualified for certain things, for no other reason than because they are qualified for nothing else.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
When my horse is running good, I don’t stop to give him sugar.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
—English Proverb
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
When your image improves, your performance improves.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Experience has taught me that there is one chief reason why some people succeed and others fail. The difference is not one of knowing, but of doing. The successful man is not so superior in ability as in action. So far as success can be reduced to a formula, it consists of this: doing what you know you should do.
—Roger Babson (1875–1967) American Economist
Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the work – the big sudden blows that come, or seem to come, from outside – the ones you remember and blame things on and, in moments of weakness, tell your friends about, don’t show their effect all at once. There is another sort of blow that comes from within – that you don’t feel until it’s too late to do anything about it, until you realize with finality that in some regard you will never be as good a man again. The first sort of breakage seems to happen quick – the second kind happens almost without your knowing it but is realized suddenly indeed. Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
There is nothing of permanent value (putting aside a few human affections), nothing that satisfies quiet reflection, except the sense of having worked according to one’s capacity and light to make things clear and get rid of cant and shams of all sorts.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Without the assistance of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Instinct is untaught ability.
—Alexander Bain (1818–1903) Scottish Empirical Philosopher, Psychologist
Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
In a higher phase of communist society… only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be fully left behind and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
In each of us there are places we have never gone. Only by pressing the limits do you ever find them.
—Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) American Psychologist, Advice Columnist
Ability and necessity dwell near each other.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
They are able because they think they are able.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
The tools to him who has the ability to handle them.
—French Proverb
All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.
—Anonymous
The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Leave a Reply