|
| Navigation: Famous Quotes and Authors - Ability and Achievement Quotes |
|
|
|
Ability and Achievement Quotes and Quotations
 Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.  Ambition can creep as well as soar. An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field. An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and how to avoid them. Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying. Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim. Nothing is too small to know, and nothing too big to attempt. So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor, magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire and 20 or 30 billion dollars and, vroom! There he is, up on a rock, a quarter of a million miles up in the sky. The best is the enemy of the good. - Voltaire The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems. The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion 20 years later. The trouble with specialists is that they tend to think in grooves. There are no credentials. They do not even need a medical certificate. They need not be sound either in body or mind. They only require a certificate of birth -just to prove they are first of the litter. You would not choose a Spaniel on these principles. (On aristocracy) Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest. You commit a sin of omission if you do not utilize all the power that is within you. All men have claims on man, and to the man with special talents, this is a very special claim. It is required that a man take part in the actions and clashes of his time than the peril of being judged not to have lived at all. I am surprised nothing has been made of the fact that astronaut Neil Armstrong carried no sidearms when he landed on the moon. 'What would you call the highest happiness?' Wratislaw was asked. 'The sense of competence,' was the answer, given without hesitation. The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. How many 'coming men' has one known? Where on earth do they all go to? He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. They are able who think they are able. - Virgil The biggest things are always the easiest to do because there is no competition. 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. It's pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious. Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. Out of the strain of the Doing, Into the peace of the Done. It's them that takes advantage that gets advantage i' this world. Anything you're good at contributes to happiness. I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. There is endless merit in a man's knowing when to have done. It's the whole, not the detail, that matters. Long is the road from conception to completion. - Moliere Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Back of every achievement is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law. Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. About all some men accomplish in life is to send a son to Harvard. He has half the deed done who has made a beginning. - Horace Give me where to stand, and I will move the earth. The only way round is through. If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Is there anything in life so disenchanting as attainment? I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back. That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren. In esse I am nothing; in posse I am everything. Out of the best and most productive years of each man's life, he should carve a segment in which he puts his private career aside to serve his community and his country, and thereby serve his children, his neighbours, his fellow men, and the cause of freedom. Good is not good, where better is expected. Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road. We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears. Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater. For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is. - Goethe He that leaveth nothing to Chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things. When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. Everyone must row with the oars he has. Every calling is great when greatly pursued. Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one. God gives the nuts, but he does not crack them. Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. What one has to do usually can be done. The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck. I confess that altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. With all humility, I think 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,' infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbour as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbour; you must be living with your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing. Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. To achieve great things, we must live as though we were never going to die. I am easily satisfied with the very best. The more we realize our minuteness and our impotence in the face of cosmic forces, the more astonishing becomes what human beings have achieved. Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps. There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. Each morning sees some task begun Each evening sees it close. Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose. The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it. God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars. There are two kinds of people: those who are always well and those who are always sick. Most of the evils of the world come from the first sort and most of the achievements from the second. 
|
|
| The Quotes on this website are the property of their respective authors. All information has been reproduced on this website for informational and educational purposes only. Copyright © 2011 Famous Quotes and Authors.com. All Rights Reserved. |
