Do you want to learn about cultivating success? Read this collection of classic, timeless quotations about human ability, capability and potential.
Classic Quotations About Ability, Capability, and Human Potential
Ability involves responsibility; power, to its last particle, is duty. — A. Maclaren
Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are the smoothest. — Jean Paul Richter
What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline. — H. P. Liddon
The world is like a board with holes in it, and the square men get into the round holes. — Sydney Smith
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognise ability. — Elbert Hubbard
We should be on our guard against the temptation to argue directly from skill to capacity, and to assume when a man displays skill in some feat, his capacity is therefore considerable. — T. H. Pear
The ablest men in all the walks of modern life are men of faith. Most of them have much more faith than they themselves realise. — Bruce Barton
Faith in the ability of a leader is of slight service unless it be united with faith in his justice. — General George W. Goethals
There may be luck in getting a good job—but there’s no luck in keeping it. — J. Ogden Armour
The question “Who ought to be boss?” is like asking “Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?” Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. — Henry Ford
A pint can’t hold a quart—if it holds a pint it is doing all that can be expected of it. — Margaret Deland
Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. — Schopenhauer
Ability is a poor man’s wealth. — M. Wren
Ability doth hit the mark where presumption over-shooteth and diffidence falleth short. — Cusa
They are able because they think they are able. — Virgil
The art of being able to make a good use of modern abilities wins esteem, and often confers more reputation than greater real merit. — Rochefoucauld
Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. — They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent. — Walpole
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. — If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered. — Sir W. Temple
No man’s abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity, a patron, and even the praises of a friend to recommend them to the notice of the world. — Pliny
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. — Gibbon
