From the Scholastic Treasury of Quotations for Children, by Adrienne Betz (1998).
Ability & Talent
Talent is like electricity - we do not understand electricity. We use it. ~Maya Angelou Natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study. ~Francis Bacon Behind every able man, there are always other able men. ~Chinese Proverb It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. ~Rene Descartes Everyone must row with the oars he has. ~English Proverb The same man cannot be skilled in everything, each has his special excellence. ~Euripides Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do than what one can do. ~Lin Yutang If I have made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent. ~Isaac Newton Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use. ~Charles Schulz They are able because they think they are able. ~Virgil |
Achievements
By their fruits ye shall know them. ~Matthew 7:20 One never sees what has been done. One can only see what still needs to be done. ~Marie Curie The reward if a thing well done is to have done it. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst. ~James Weldon Johnson When I read great literature, great drama, speeches or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language. ~James Earl Jones Excellent things are rare. ~Plato |
Action
Actions speak louder than words. ~American Proverb The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease. ~Josh Billings All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties.~William Bradford Human beings...must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. ~Charlotte Bronte The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~Edmund Burke Talk does not cook rice. ~Chinese Proverb Be always sure you're right - then go ahead. ~David Crockett Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe The things that haven't been done before...Those are the things to try. ~Edgar Guest I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do. ~Edward Everett Hall Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. Carpe Diem, quan minimum credual postero. ~Horace We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Actions will be judged according to their intentions. ~Muhammad The best time to do something is when it can be done. ~William Pickens We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond to them. ~Abigail Adams A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds. ~Mother Goose Words that do not match deeds are unimportant. ~Che Guevara Deeds are better things than words are, actions mightier than boastings. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow There is a great distance between said and done. ~Puerto Rican Proverb |