Ability Quotes

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor."
-Henry David Thoreau

"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
-Abraham Lincoln

"Martyrdom... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability."
-George Bernard Shaw

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper."
-Robert Frost

"'Tis skill, not strength, that governs a ship."
-Dr. Thomas Fuller

"Maturity is the ability to do a job whether or not you are supervised, to carry money without spending it and to bear an injustice without wanting to get even."
-Ann Landers

"You cannot go around and keep score. If you keep score on the good things and the bad things, you'll find out that you're a very miserable person. God gave man the ability to forget, which is one of the greatest attributes you have. Because if you remember everything that's happened to you, you generally remember that which is the most unfortunate."
-Hubert H. Humphrey

"The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness."
-Abraham Maslow

"There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability."
-Robert Half

"Ability will never catch up with the demand for it."
-Malcolm S. Forbes

"Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short."
-Golda Meir

"The less their ability, the more their conceit."
-Ahad HaAm

"It is a great ability to be able to conceal one's ability."
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"The Army has carried the American ... ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability."
-Tom Lehrer

"I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it."
-Hank Aaron

"Never were abilities so much below mediocrity so well rewarded; no, not when Caligula's horse was made Consul."
-John Randolph

"If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected."
-Bill Gates

"Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against stupidity."
-Paul Graham

"The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself."
-Bernard M. Baruch

"Native ability without education is like a tree without fruit."
-Aristippus

"Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment."
-Baltasar Gracian

"Skill is fine, and genius is splendid, but the right contacts are more valuable than either."
-Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

"Ability is sexless."
-John Henry Newman

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
-Sir Winston Churchill

"Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability."
-George Bernard Shaw

"Ability is of little account without opportunity."
-Napoleon Bonaparte

"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."
-Oscar Wilde