Ability Quotes - Page 35

• If the ability to tell right from wrong should turn out to have anything to do with the ability to think, then we must be able to "demand" its exercise from every sane person, no matter how erudite or ignorant, intelligent or stupid, he may happen to be. Kant in this respect almost alone among the philosophers was much bothered by the common opinion that philosophy is only for the few, precisely because of its moral implications.

  Hannah Arendt

  Stupid, Philosophy, Exercise

  "The Life of the Mind". Book by Hannah Arendt, p. 13, 1978.

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• The pose of innocence is as mandatory as the ability to eat banquet food and endure the scourging of the press.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Innocence, Banquets, Endure

  Lewis H. Lapham (1989). “Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion”

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• Part of America's genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shores.

  Barack Obama

  America, Identity, Genius

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.231, Canongate Books

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• What the American people hope -– what they deserve -– is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories, different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared: a job that pays the bills; a chance to get ahead; most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, Children, Differences

  First Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 27 January 2010, Washington, D.C.

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• What acquaintance have the people at large with the arena of political rectitude, with the connections of kingdoms, the resources of national strength, the abilities of ministers, or even with their own dispositions?...I pay no regard whatever to the voice of the people: it is their duty to do what is proper, without considering what may be agreeable.

  Charles James Fox

  Voice, People, Political

  "The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox in the House of Commons. Volume I" edited by J. Wright, (pp. 13-14), 1815.

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• Bertolucci is extraordinary in his ability to perceive, he's a poet...he is very easy to work for.

  Marlon Brando

  Poet, Easy, Perceive

  Rolling Stone Issue No. 213, May 20, 1976.

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• You are different from the really great man in only one thing: The great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: he learned to see where he was small in his thinking, and actions. Under the pressure of some task which was dear to him he learned better and better to sense the threat that comes from his smallness and pettiness. The great man, then, knows when and in what he is a little man.

  Wilhelm Reich

  Men, Thinking, Important

  "Listen, Little Man!". Book by Wilhelm Reich, 1948.

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• Good art means the ability of any one man to pin down in some permanent and intelligible medium a sort of idea of what he sees in Nature that nobody else sees. In other words, to make the other fellow grasp, through skilled selective care in interpretative reproduction or symbolism, some inkling of what only the artist himself could possibly see in the actual objective scene itself.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Art, Mean, Men

  Letter to Woodburn Harris (25 February-1 March 1929), quoted in "H.P. Lovecraft, a Life" by S.T. Joshi, (p. 487), 1996.

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• The noise you hear after people see something you do - whether it's a TV show or a movie - that always makes you see that thing slightly differently. Without question. The ability of a television series to make adjustments is something you've got to take advantage of. And test-screening a movie can be helpful too. But the part that can be dangerous is when you take those notes as gospel, instead of taking them with a grain of salt. The key is to use the response as one of the tools in your box, as opposed to using it to determine what you do.

  J. J. Abrams

  Tv Shows, Keys, People

  Interview with Noel Murray, tv.avclub.com. September 2, 2008.

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• I remember being taught to read at a very early age. Like creepy young. I remember being in the crib, reading. My parents were very impressed. My reading speed, comprehension and overall ability has remained at that level ever since.

  J. J. Abrams

  Reading, Parent, Creepy

  "J. J. Abrams: By the Book". The New York Times Interview, www.nytimes.com. October 24, 2013.

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• The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. One cannot pray unless he has faith in his own ability to accost the infinite, merciful, eternal God.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Prayer, Issues, Have Faith

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1997). “Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays”, p.107, Macmillan

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• It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man.

  Joseph Addison

  Witty, Men, Thinking

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.181

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• I've never had a block. I'm talking within the limits of my abilities. But in my own small way, I've had an embarrassment of riches. I'll have five ideas and I'm dying to do them all. It takes weeks or months where I agonize and obsess over which to do next. I wish sometimes someone would choose for me. If someone said, Do idea number three next, that would be fine. But I have never had any sense of running dry.

  Woody Allen

  Running, Block, Talking

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• Orthodoxy is the ability to say two and two make five when faith requires it.

  George Orwell

  Faith, Two, Orthodoxy

  "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Book by George Orwell, 1949.

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• Women have an extraordinary ability to withdraw from the sexual relationship, to immunize themselves against it, in such a way that their men can be left feeling let down and insulted without having anything tangible to complain of.

  Doris Lessing

  Men, Feelings, Complaining

  Doris Lessing (1973). “The Grass is Singing”, p.66, Heinemann

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• The ability to throw 100 mph cannot be taught, cannot be learned, it can only be God-given.

  Vin Scully

  Mph, Taught, Given

  "What Vin Scully Teaches Us About Communication". www.mediaplatform.com. September 2016.

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• The ability to learn is older as it is also more widespread than is the ability to teach.

  Margaret Mead

  Teaching, Learning, Teach

  Margaret Mead (1964). “Continuities in Cultural Evolution”, p.44, Transaction Publishers

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• Verbal ability is a highly overrated thing in a guy, and it's our pathetic need for it that gets us into so much trouble.

  Nora Ephron

  Guy, Needs, Trouble

  "Fictional character: Becky". "Sleepless in Seattle", www.imdb.com. 1993.

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• When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader.

  Anne Lamott

  Real, Writing, Caring

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.225, Anchor

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• The government have only a small majority in the House of Commons. I want to make it quite clear that this will not affect our ability to govern. Having been charged with the duties of Government we intend to carry out those duties.

  Harold Wilson

  Government, House, Majority

  Television broadcast in October 1964 after winning the general election. "Coalitions in British Politics". Book by Robert Blake, p. 99, 1978.

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• There is a constant rush to judgment in Foucault. He is filled with specious generalizations, false categories, distortions, fudging, pretenses to knowledge in areas where he was ignorant. He had no ability whatsoever to distinguish among historical sources, where he makes terrible blunders.

  Camille Paglia

  Historical, Ignorant, Judgment

  "Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf". Camille Paglia, "Arion", Third Series, Volume 1, No. 2, Spring 1991.

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• Many of the points made by the antiwar movement have been consciously assimilated by the Pentagon and its lawyers and advisers. Precision weaponry is good in itself, but its ability to discriminate is improving and will continue to improve. Cluster bombs are perhaps not good in themselves, but when they are dropped on identifiable concentrations of Taliban troops, they do have a heartening effect.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Troops, Bombs, Movement

  Simon Cottee, Thomas Cushman, Christopher Hitchens (2008). “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left”, p.5066, NYU Press

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• The more able a man is, if he make ill use of his abilities, the more dangerous will he be to the commonwealth.

  Demosthenes

  Men, Use, Able

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• The chief use of servants is the evidence they afford of the master's ability to pay.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Use, Pay, Masters

  Thorstein Veblen (2016). “THORSTEIN VEBLEN Ultimate Collection: 8 Books & 50+ Business Essays and Articles in Warfare and Economics: The Theory of the Leisure Class, The Theory of Business Enterprise, The Higher Learning In America, Panem et Circenses, The Vested Interests and the Common Man, The Use of Loan Credit in Business…”, p.44, e-artnow

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• When a man has his heart in the right place and good taste, he can not only do well in politics but is even predetermined for it. If someone is modest and does not yearn for power, he is certainly not ill-equipped to engage in politics; on the contrary, he belongs there. What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.

  Vaclav Havel

  Lying, Heart, Men

  International Herald Tribune, October 29, 1991.

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