Ability

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order

Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or senator, and remain fit for anything else

They know enough who know how to learn

In putting off what one has to do, one runs the risk of never being able to do it

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake

Conciseness is the sister of talent

The university brings out all abilities, including incapability

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly; devils fall because of their gravity

I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning - and yet it must be

Negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.

No ideas and the ability to express them - that's a journalist

It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer

Sentimentally I am disposed to harmony; but organically I am incapable of a tune

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle

The most accomplished monkey cannot draw a monkey, this only man can do; just as it is also only man who regards his ability to do this as a distinct merit

The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others