Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out read more

He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can read more

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.

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance
of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no read more

One thing, however, I must premise, that without the assistance
of natural capacity, rules and precepts are of no efficacy.
[Lat., Illud tamen in primis testandum est, nihil praecepta atque
artes valere nisi adjuvante natura.]

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck, that of the people.

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck, that of the people.

A Traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a
Lacedaemonian, "I do not believe you can read more

A Traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a
Lacedaemonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True,"
said he. "but every goose can."

Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.
[Ger., Die Menschen gehen wie Schiesskugeln weiter, wenn sie
read more

Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.
[Ger., Die Menschen gehen wie Schiesskugeln weiter, wenn sie
abgeglattet sind.]