Quotes
Quotes about Ability
They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
There is far more opportunity than there is ability.
It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work our differences.
We're often so blind. Our demand for the credentialed so colors our perception of believeability, that we wouldn't recognize God if he appeared within us. -Unknown.
Consider the postage stamp, my son. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.
Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.
The observation of others is coloured by our inability to observe ourselves impartially. We can never be impartial about anything until we can be impartial about our own organism. - Essays and Aphorisms.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
The Beginning of Philosophy . . . is a Consciousness of your own Weakness and inability in necessary things.
In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.
One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
If the small minority of enlightened citizens who are able to conceive sound principles of political management do not succeed in winning the support of their fellow citizens and converting them to the endorsement of policies that bring and preserve prosperity, the cause of mankind and civilization is hopeless. There is no other means to safeguard a propitious development of human affairs than to make the masses of inferior people adopt the ideas of the elite. This has to be achieved by convincing them. It cannot be accomplished by a despotic regime that instead of enlightening the masses beats them into submission. In the long run the ideas of the majority, however detrimental they may be, will carry on. The future of mankind depends on the ability of the elite to influence public opinion in the right direction.
...if we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.
A piece of simple goodness--a letter gushing from the heart; a beautiful unstudied vindication of the worth and untiring sweetness of human nature--a record of the invulnerability of man, armed with high purpose, sanctified by truth.
The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot.
Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre.
Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment.
The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the future, and therefore the more likely it is that more people will make more plans in such areas.
The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary; but wherever they do liberate an individual's judgement and confidence we can be sure that we are in the presence of exceptional ability.
To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
The readiness to praise others indicates a desire for excellence and perhaps an ability to realize it.
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
Instinct is untaught ability.
