best quotations about
Ability |
and Competence
| 65 quotes | Visits: 4,239 |
Quotations
 | Ability is nothing without opportunity. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 13 likes |
 | Age gives you an excuse for not being very good at things that you were not very good at when you were young. — Thomas Sowell, 1930 -, American political thinker 12 likes |
 | I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer 11 likes |
 | Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of FORD 9 likes |
 | He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious. — Sun Tzu, c. 5th cent. BC, Chinese general & military strategist 9 likes |
 | The man who says he can, and the man who says he can not are both correct. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 8 likes |
 | Ability can take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 7 likes |
 | The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology. — H.L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American columnist & cultural critic 7 likes |
 | Give me a museum and I'll fill it. — Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish painter 6 likes |
 | Anything you can imagine you can make real. — Jules Verne, 1826-1905, French writer 6 likes |
| He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law. — Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish painter 6 likes |
| Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 5 likes |
 | He had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute. — Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, English historian 5 likes |
 | He is not poor who has enough of things to use. If it is well with your belly, chest and feet, the wealth of kings can give you nothing more. 5 likes |
 | There is only one proof of ability: action. — Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1830-1916, German author of maxims 5 likes |
| One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn't do. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of FORD 5 likes |
 | We are afraid of the enormity of the possible. — Emile M. Cioran, 1911-1995, French-Romanian philosopher 4 likes |
 | Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881, Russian writer 4 likes |
 | Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. — Bill Gates, 1955-, American businessman 4 likes |
 | There are some persons who only disgust with their abilities, there are persons who please even with their faults. — La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680, French writer 4 likes |
 | Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 4 likes |
 | We must consult our means rather than our wishes. — George Washington, 1732-1799, the first American President 4 likes |
 | Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. — Lou Holtz, 1937-, American football coach 4 likes |
| There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of FORD 4 likes |
 | Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him. — Stephen King, 1947-, American author of horror & fantasy fiction 4 likes |
 | A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein, 1907-1988, American sci-fi writer 4 likes |
 | Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out. — Titus Livius, 59 BC-17 AD, Roman historian 4 likes |
 | As we are human, we can't do what we can't do; as we're neurotic, we can't do what we can. — Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, American magazine editor 4 likes |
 | If you can dream it, you can achieve it. — Walt Disney, 1901-1966, American businessman & cartoonist 4 likes |
 | It is one thing to desire, another to be in capacity fit for what we desire. — Thomas Hobbes, 1588-1679, English philosopher 3 likes |
 | Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study. — Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, English philosopher 3 likes |
 | If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. — Thomas Edison, 1847-1934, American inventor 3 likes |
 | Humans have the remarkable ability to get exactly what they must have. But there is a difference between a “must” and a “want.” — Jim Rohn, 1930-2009, American self-help speker 3 likes |
 | It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job. — Alexandre Dumas, 1802-1870, French writer 3 likes |
 | For some strange reason, the absolutely correct axiom “no one is irreplaceable” often leads to the disastrous distortion: “anyone can replace anyone.” — Manolis Doukides, Greek writer 3 likes |
| The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. — Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794, English historian 3 likes |
 | Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible. — Doug Larson, 1926-2017, American columnist 3 likes |
 | You owe it to all of us to get on with what you’re good at. — W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, British poet 2 likes |
 | You're never given a dream without the power to make it true. — Richard Bach, 1936-, American writer 2 likes |
 | All you need to paint is a few tools, a little instruction, and a vision in your mind. — Bob Ross, 1942-1995, American painter & TV personality 1 likes |
 | It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious. — Kin Hubbard, 1868-1930, American cartoonist 1 likes |
| How do you make a round circle with a square knife? That’s your challenge for the day. — Bob Ross, 1942-1995, American painter & TV personality 1 likes |
 | If you can do it then why do it? — Gertrude Stein, 1874-1946, American writer 1 likes |
 | If the man does not reach the edge of the cliff, he cannot grow wings to fly. — Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883-1957, Greek writer 1 likes |
 | Lofty posts make great men greater still, and small men much smaller. — Jean de La Bruyère, 1645-1696, French writer 1 likes |
 | Nothing is impossible for a man who does not have to do it himself. — Marcel Achard, 1899-1974, French playwright 1 likes |
 | Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish writer 1 likes |
| To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish writer 1 likes |
 | Every day that we fail to live out the maximum of our potentialities we kill the Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, Christ which is in us. — Henry Miller, 1891-1980, American writer 1 likes |
 | You must be the kind of man who can get things done. But to get things done, you must love the doing, not the secondary consequences. — Ayn Rand, 1905-1982, American writer & philosopher 1 likes |
 | I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers. — Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930, British writer 1 likes |
 | Success is to be measured not by wealth, power, or fame, but by the ratio between what a man is and what he might be. — H.G. Wells, 1866-1946, British writer 1 likes |
| The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe. — Bob Ross, 1942-1995, American painter & TV personality 1 likes |
 | Women can do anything men can do, but often have more sense than even to be interested. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-2025, British cartoonist & epigrammatist 1 likes |
Latin Quotes
 | They can because they think they can. Possunt, quia posse videntur. — Virgil, 70-19 BC, Roman poet 101 likes |
 | Ready-Willing-Potent Libens-Volens-Potens 53 likes |
| We can’t all of us do everything. Non omnia possumus omnes. — Virgil, 70-19 BC, Roman poet 21 likes |
Funny Quotes
 | If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read “President Can't Swim”. — Lyndon Johnson, 1908-1973, American President [1963-1969] 5 likes |
Ancient Greek
 | Sailing to Corinth is not for everyone. Ου παντός πλειν ες Κόρινθον. 6 likes |
 | Even a good captain could be shipwrecked. And a great man can fail. Και κυβερνήτης αγαθός ενίοτε ναυαγεί· και ανήρ σπουδαίος ατυχεί. — Plutarch, 47-120 AD, Ancient Greek historian 5 likes |
 | No boaster he, but with a hand which sees the thing to do. Ανήρ άκομπος, χειρ δ’ ορά το δράσιμον. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian 5 likes |
 | Do not try what is beyond your capability. Μη πλέω προσάπτεσθαι των δυνατών. — Democritus, 470-370 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 5 likes |
Special Quotes
 | Be all that you can be. — Motto of the U.S. Army 3 likes |
Movie Quotes
 | Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything. — from the film The Karate Kid (1984) 4 likes |
