“Great abilities are rare, and they are often accompanied by qualities which make the abilities useless to him who has them, and even injurious to society.”

“Ability without honor is useless.”

“Those who have the ability to be grateful are the ones who have the ability to achieve greatness.”

“Talent was not rare; the ability to survive having it was.”

“Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”

“[T]he first characteristic of the human species is man's ability, as a rational being, to establish character for himself, as well as for the society into which nature has placed him. This ability, however, presupposes an already favorable natural predisposition and an inclination to the good in man, because the evil is really without character”

“The qualities called personal… and the ability to impart them, in greater or less degree, is the gage of genius in art.”

“The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. It was man's ability to invent which has made human society what it is.”

“The making of a journalist: no ideas and the ability to express them.”

“Women are attracted to men's ability to generate, to be productive, and to share. These qualities transcend wealth, which can disappear.”