Ability

"One who intends to understand grasps even the slightest hint, but the one who has no intention to understand never comprehends, no matter how loudly you shout."

"Martyrdom... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability."

"The world is like a board with holes in it, and the square men have got into the round holes."

"We shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole."

"A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obligations."

"I think you are gonna find, when it's over... I think you're gonna find yourself one smilin' motherfucker. The thing is Butch, right now, you've got ability. But painful as it may be, ability don't last. And your days are just about over. Now that's a hard motherfuckin' fact of life. But it's a fact of life your ass is gonna hafta get realistic about. See this business is filled to the brim with unrealistic motherfuckers. Motherfuckers who thought their ass would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean it gets better with age, it don't. Besides Butch, how many fights you think you got left in you anyway? Two? Boxers don't have an 'old timer's day.' You came close, but you never made it, and if you were gonna make it, you woulda made it before now."

"Read my little fable: He that runs may read. Most can raise the flowers now, For all have got the seed."

"Les méchants sont toujours surpris de trouver de l'habileté dans les bons."

"Possunt, quia posse videntur."

"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."

"Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended."

"I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them."

"We all have ability. The difference is how we use it."

"Who does the best his circumstance allows Does well, acts nobly; angels could no more."