Quotes about capability
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“I just want to be warm. Just once let me be warm. Is there no star capable of sharing its fire with me? (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Star

“Only someone who can say 'I love you' is capable of saying 'I forgive you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Love, Forgiveness

“Mortals did not need gods to order them to kill eachother. They were quite capable of finding reasons to do so themselves.”

Trudi Canavan (1969) Australian writer

Source: Voice of the Gods

God

“We are ever capable of change and ever capable of being our better selves”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Change

“Nobody is capable of of free speech unless he knows how to use language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to learned and worked at. [p.93]”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

Source: "Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 6: The Vocation of Eloquence
Context: Freedom has nothing to do with lack of training; it can only be the product of training. You're not free to move unless you've learned to walk, and not free to play the piano unless you practise. Nobody is capable of free speech unless he knows how to use the language, and such knowledge is not a gift: it has to be learned and worked at.

Knowledge, Learning

“Why, I can't help wondering, is God thought to need such ferocious
defence? One might have supposed him amply capable of looking
after himself.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

God, Help

“Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

42 min 33 sec
Variant: A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), The Persistence of Memory [Episode 11]
Context: What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Books, Time

“No; he could be ruined again and again by hope, but he would never be capable of belief.”

Michael Chabon book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Source: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Hope

“I'm not bossy - I just happen to be more capable than most everyone else.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Source: The Actor and the Housewife

“People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

People, Dreams, Time

“I never use the words HUMANIST or HUMANITARIAN, as it seems to me that to be human is to be capable of the most heinous crimes in nature.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Nature

“Love is taking chances when every rational part of you screams, ‘Don’t risk it.’ Because it’s only when your heart has been ripped open that you get a chance to find the one person capable of making it whole.”

Sabrina Jeffries (1960) American writer

Source: A Lady Never Surrenders

Love, Chance, Heart, Parting

“I have a dark and dreadful secret. I write poetry… I believe poetry is a primal impulse within all of us. I believe we are all capable of it and furthermore that a small, often ignored corner of us positively yearns to try it.”

Stephen Fry book The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

Source: The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

Secret

“Yes, you know enough of my frankness to believe me capable of that. After abusing you so abominably to your face, I could have no scruple in abusing you to all your relations.”
-Elizabeth Bennet”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“I never knew I was capable of being ridiculous over a man. It's a relief.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“Jem is nothing but goodness. That he struck you last night only shows how capable you are of driving even saints to madness.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Madness, Night

“Oftentimes, those special brains, the ones that are capable of focusing more intently than others, do so at the expense of emotional maturity”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

“But, outside of being a sweet little girl, she was awfully dumb and capable of doing horrible things.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Girl

“He was one of those rare men who are capable of being fully in love only once in their lives.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

Love, Men

“When you were in love, you were capable of learning everything and of knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love was the key to understanding all of the mysteries.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Variant: When you’re in love, you’re capable of learning everything and knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love is the key to understanding of all the the mysteries.
Source: Brida

Love, Understanding, Thinking, Learning

“If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Thinking

“People who think God is on their side are capable of the most inhumane acts. (Petrov)”

Vince Flynn Consent to Kill

Source: Consent to Kill

God, People, Thinking

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Source: Kavanagh: A Tale (1849), Chapter 1.

Feeling

“There are moments in your life when you see yourself through someone else’s eyes, when your only hope of believing you’re capable of doing something is because someone else believes it for you.”

Marc Acito (1966) American novelist, humorist, screenwriter

Source: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater

Life, Hope

“By nature of definition only the coward is capable of the highest heroism.”

David Gemmell book Legend

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 4

Nature

“Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.”

Peter F. Drucker book The Essential Drucker

Source: The Essential Drucker

People

“They looked like two children," she told me. And that thought frightened her, because she'd always felt that only children are capable of everything.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Source: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Children

“Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Life

“Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel.”

Helen Keller book The World I Live In

Source: The World I Live In

Feeling, Universe, Dependency

“once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer

Love, Hope, Falseness

“To truly esteem oneself means that one must be capable of feeling shame or self-disgust when one does not live up to a certain standard”

Francis Fukuyama (1952) American political scientist, political economist, and author

Feeling

“Even people capable of living in the past don't really know what the future holds.”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

People, Past, Future

“Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Ch. 28 Reunion

“When someone less capable is ahead of me, I am not pleased. It makes me insane.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: An Object of Beauty

“The most futile thing in this world is any attempt, perhaps, at exact definition of character. All individuals are a bundle of contradictions—none more so than the most capable.”

Theodore Dreiser book The Financier

Source: The Financier (1912), Ch. XIII

World

“There is no man living who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Thinking

“A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

The Expanding Universe (1963)
Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Life, Books, Star, Universe

“Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Variant: the people you love can surprise you every day... maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it.
Source: My Sister's Keeper (2004)

“Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena

Vol. 2, Ch. 26, § 320
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims

Money, Happiness, Heart

“DeWitt: Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And sometimes the people who most need to reach out are the people least capable of it.”

Jane Espenson (1964) American television writer and producer

People, Loneliness

“The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.”

Larry Niven Ringworld series

Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 96

God, Fools

“Let's sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

Intelligence, Support, Change, Animals

“We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: On Love

Love, Disease, Intelligence

“So few people know what they're capable of.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

People

“Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“Even though Cammie is fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man seven different ways with her bare hands, she has no idea what to do when she meets an ordinary boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Way, Girl, Boy, Idea

“… to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses oneself, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender…”

Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States

Source: A Field Guide to Getting Lost

“And what about magic?”
“What about it?”
“Will you teach me?”
“You don’t even know if you’re capable of doing magic.”
“How do I find out? Is there a test or something?”
“Yes, we cut off your head. If it grows back, you can do magic.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

“Over and over I feel as if my characters know who they are, and what happens to them, and where they have been and where they will go, and what they are capable of doing, but they need me to write it down for them because their handwriting is so bad.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Feeling

“A real friend isn't capable of feeling sorry for you.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Feeling

“A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. By contrast, a woman's presence… defines what can and cannot be done to her.”

John Berger book Ways of Seeing

Source: Ways of Seeing (1972)
Context: According to usage and conventions which are at last being questioned but have by no means been overcome, the social presence of a woman is different in kind from that of a man... A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you... By contrast, a woman's presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. (p. 45-46)

“People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

People, Fear

“If Paris were missing, he´d want the same guys looking for him. Seriously, the only team capable of getting better results would be Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Hannibal”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Seduction

Guy

“It took a lot of women like that, a lot of women who said "I'm not going to do what you expect me to do, because you have no idea what I'm capable of. I'm going to get dirty and use tools and live the way I want" to move the world forward.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Last Little Blue Envelope

Women, World, Way, Idea

“The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Boy, Heart

“I've got mixed feelings about poetry cause done well poetry is fantastic. But not many people are capable of doing it well. I think you should have some kind of license to perform poetry. A poetic license perhaps.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

People, Feeling, Thinking

“Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Decision, Chance, Forgetting

“When you chase a dream, you learn about yourself. You learn your capabilities and limitations, and the value of hard work and persistence.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Nicholas Sparks, Chapter 11, p. 187
2000s, Three Weeks with My Brother (2004)
Source: Three Weeks With My Brother

Dreams, Learning

“Capabilities are clearly manifested only when they have been realized.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Second Sex

Source: The Second Sex

“That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.”

Gene Wolfe The Claw of the Conciliator

Source: The Claw of the Conciliator

“Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

World, Feeling

“God isn't chocolate, he's the encounter between chocolate and the palate capable of appreciating it.”

Amélie Nothomb (1967) Belgian francophone writer

God

“The mind of man is capable of anything.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

For Men

“Strength does not make one capable of rule; it makes one capable of service.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

“To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Love, Friendship, Heart

“Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

“If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.”

Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

Source: The Remains of the Day

Perfection

“We truly believed in something back then, and we knew we were the kind of people capable of believing in something - with all our hearts. And that kind of hope will never simply vanish.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

People, Hope, Heart, Hope

“It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. You live in this vast body called the Universe, which contains all the solutions and all the problems. Visit your soul; don’t visit your past. The Universe goes through many mutations and carries the past with it. We call each of those mutations a ‘life,’ but just as the cells in your body change and yet you remain the same, so time does not pass, it merely changes.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Life, Soul, Imagination, Problem

“What is Aldous capable of?"
"Aldous is two thousands years old. He's capable of anything."
"Aldous Nix is two thousands years old?"
"So, I've heard. He doesn't invite me to his birthday parties.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

Birthday

“Every man, woman, and child is capable of extreme and utter prejudice and cruelty when they feel justified in their hatred.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Feeling

“the mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

Past, Future

“Be your own worst critic.
When things go wrong it's tempting to shift the blame. Don't.
Accept responsibility. People will appreciate it, and you will find out what you're capable of.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

People

“Only the person who is essentially capable of remaining silent is capable of speaking essentially.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Personality

“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

As quoted in Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anaïs to Zee (1997) by Wayne M. Bryant, p. 143
Attributed

Love, Fear, Feeling

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

For Men

“Only love heals. Anger, guilt, and fear can only destroy and separate you from your true capabilities.”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

Love, Fear, Anger

“To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

People, Truth

“It is not only by one's impulses that one achieves greatness, but also by patiently filing away the steel wall that separates what one feels from what one is capable of doing.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Feeling

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer

Variant: Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.

Motivation, Attitude

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Motivation, Attitude

“As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1, Preface http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/preface2.html <br class="br">Referenced <br class="br">Source: Geschichte Meines Lebens

Love, Teachers, Evil

“I love everything about Tyler Durden, his courage and his smarts. His nerve. Tyler is funny and charming and forceful and independent, and men look up to him and expect him to change their world. Tyler is capable and free, and I am not.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Love, Men, World, Courage

“things which in my mind blossom will
stumble beneath a clumsiest disguise appear
capable of fragility and indecision”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Appearance, Indecision

“I don't know yet what I am capable of doing, but, by God, I have genius -- I know it too well to blush behind it.”

Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) American writer

God

“I didn't know I had it in me. There's more to all of us than we realize. Life is so much bigger, grander, higher, and wider than we allow ourselves to think. We're capable of so much more than we allow ourselves to believe.”

Queen Latifah (1970) American musician and actress

Source: Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom

Life, Thinking

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

Change, Parting

“My heart might be bruised, but it will recover and become capable of seeing beauty of life once more. It's happened before, it will happen again, I'm sure. When someone leaves, it's because someone else is about to arrive--I'll find love again.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Love, Life, Beauty, Heart

“There was a man who was worthless, and knew he was worthless, and yet however far down he tried to sink his soul, there was always some part of him capable of great action.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Soul, Parting

“Mistakes, mistakes, it's all I seem capable of at times.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Time

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

Love, Friendship, For Him, For Friend

“Only children believe they're capable of everything.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Children