God does not ask about our ability, but our availability.

God does not ask about our ability, but our availability.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the read more

Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.

For as our modern wits behold,
Mounted a pick-back on the old,
Much farther off, much further read more

For as our modern wits behold,
Mounted a pick-back on the old,
Much farther off, much further he,
Rais'd on his aged Beast, could see.

You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in
the 'versal world but what read more

You are a devil at everything, and there is no kind of thing in
the 'versal world but what you can turn your hand into.

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.]

A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.

A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.

I add this also, that natural ability without education has
oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education read more

I add this also, that natural ability without education has
oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without
natural ability.
[Lat., Etiam illud adjungo, saepius ad laudem atque virtutem
naturam sine doctrina, quam sine natura valisse doctrinam.]