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ABILITY
ABSENCE --- ABSENTMINDED
ABSTINENCE --- ABSURDITIES --- ABUSE

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ABILITY

see: "PERSERVERANCE"
see: "TALENT"


He is able who thinks he is able.
--Buddha [Gautama] (c. 6th—4th century B.C.)
Founder of Buddhism.

That there should one Man die ignorant who had
capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
_Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufeldrockh_,
3.4, [1835]

-

Ability without honor is useless.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.


I add this also, that natural ability without education has
oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education
without natural ability.
[Lat., Etiam illud adjungo, saepius ad laudem atque
virtutem naturam sine doctrina, quam sine natura
valisse doctrinam.]
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
_Oratio Pro Licinio Archia_, VII

-

There is only one proof of ability — action.
--Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830—1916)
Austrian writer.

The hard soil and four months of snow make the
inhabitiant of the northern temperate zones wiser
and abler than the fellow who enjoys the fixed
smile of the tropics.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Prudence" _Essays_, First Series [1841]

The tragedy is that so many have ambition
and so few have ability.
--William Feather (1889—1981)
American author and publisher.

-

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you're right.
--Henry Ford (1863—1947)
American car manufacturer.


One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one
of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he
was afraid he couldn't do.
--Henry Ford (1863—1947)
American car manufacturer.

-

There is no need to show your ability before everyone.
--James A. Froude (1818—1894)
English historian.
_Short Studies on Great Subjects_ [1894] "Education"

Great ability without discretion comes
almost invariably to a tragic end.
--L้on Gambetta (1838—1882)
French republican statesman.

There is no need to show your ability before everyone.
--Baltasar Graciแn (1601—1658)
Spanish Jesuit philosopher.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to
discover ability in others is the true test.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."

It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they
set out without preconceived notions.
--Charles F. Kettering (1876—1958)
American inventor.

He was one of those men who possess almost every
gift, except the gift of the power to use them.
--Charles Kingsley (1819—1875)
English writer and clergyman.
_From Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life_ [1879]

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.
_Kavanagh_, ch. 1

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do
not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but
if anything is within the powers and province of man,
believe that it is within your own compass also.
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180)
Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher.

If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting
to treat everything as if it were a nail.
--Abraham Maslow (1908—1970)
American psychologist.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want
of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the
mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
In Louis Klopsch
_Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 5 [1896].

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925.

An able man shows his spirit by gentle
words and resolute actions.
--Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th earl of Chesterfield (1694—1773)
English statesman and author.

Ability is the art of getting credit for all
the home runs somebody else hits.
--Casey Stengel (1891—1975)
American Major League baseball player and manager;
inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.

-

Non omnia possumus omnes.
We can't all do everything.
--Virgil (70—19 B.C.)
Roman poet.
_Eclogues_


They are able because they think they are able.
--Virgil (70—19 B.C.)
Roman poet.
_The Aeneid_, v. 231

-

The world cares very little about what a man or
woman knows; it is what a man or woman is
able to do that counts.
--Booker T. Washington (1856—1915)
African-American educator.

-----

proclivity [pro-KLIV-uh-tee], noun:
A natural inclination; predisposition.

repertory (noun)
The entire range of skills or aptitudes or devices
used in a particular field or occupation.
Synonyms: repertoire

wunderkind (plural wunderkinder or wunderkinds)
noun 1. young successful person: somebody who is extremely
successful at a young age
2. child prodigy: a child who is unusually talented at something
[Late 19th century. From German, literally “wonder child.”]



ABSENCE

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.

see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)"


'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark
our coming, and look brighter when we come.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder is a lot
of crap. Absence makes them think you're dead.
--James Caan (1940— )
American actor.

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and
increases great ones, as the wind blows out
candles and fans fire.
--Fran็ois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_ [1678];
maxim 276.

Short absence quickens love; long absence kills it.
--Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau (1715—1789)
French political economist and father of the French
revolutionary Comte de Mirabeau.

Conspicuous by his absence.
--Terence [Publius Terentius Afer] (c. 190—159 BC)
Roman comic dramatist.

But when he (man) shall have been taken from sight,
he quickly goes also out of mind.
[Lat., Cum autem sublatus fuerit ab oculis,
etiam cito transit a mente.]
--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_Imitation of Christ_ [c.1420], bk. I, ch. XXIII




ABSENTMINDED

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see "THE MIND" for related links


^^

William Cecil (1863—1936), bishop of Exeter.

Traveling by rail to a confirmation ceremony, the
abesentminded bishop mislaid his ticket and was
unable to produce it for the ticket collector. "It's
all right my Lord," said the ticket collector, "We
know who you are."

"That's all very well," replied the bishop, "but
without the ticket how am I to know where I'm
going?"

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard

^^



ABSTINENCE

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.

see: "MODERATION"
see: "SELF-CONTROL"
see "ALCOHOL" for other related links
see "FOOD & DRINK" for other related links


One reason why I don't drink is because I wish
to know when I am having a good time.
--Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor
(1879—1964)
American-born, first woman to be a member of Parliament in Britian.
In "Christian Herald" [June 1960].

To many, total abstinence is easier
than perfect moderation.
--Augustine, St. of Hippo (354—430)
Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in
Roman Africa [396-430].
_On the Good of Marriage_ [401]

Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields
to the temptation of denying himself a
pleasure.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex,
and rich food. He was healthy right up to the time
he killed himself.
--Johnny Carson (1925—2005)
American comedian and host of The Tonight Show [1962—1992].
(On NBC's The Tonight Show [20 November 1984])

^^

Lord William Cecil, son of the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, and Bishop
of Exeter, was well-known for his superb chef and his marvellous cellar.
At one dinner party, the woman sitting next to him was surprised (and
perturbed) to notice that, while everyone else's glasses were lavishly
filled, the butler always passed her by. In the end she tackled her host,
asking whether she might also be allowed a glass of wine.

The Bishop apologised profusely, and the butler was ordered to fill her
glass. 'But I'm afraid it was I who gave the order that you should not
be given any wine. You see, I understood that you were the Secretary
of the local Temperance Society.'

'Oh no, dear Bishop,' she replied. 'I am the Secretary of the Chastity
League.'

'Ah, that was it,' he said. 'I knew there was *something* you didn't do.

_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Church and Clergy"

^^

I'll turn over a new leaf.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605—1615]
Pt. 2 [1615], bk. 3, ch. 13.

Oons, Sir! do you say that I am drunk? Sir, that
I am as sober as a judge.
--Henry Fielding (1707—1754)
English novelist and dramatist.
_Don Quixote in England_, 3.14 [1734]

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for
days on nothing but food and water.
--W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield]
(1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor.

^

Ira Gershwin (1896—1983) American lyricist.

Gershwin was a keen poken player, but
very unlucky. After a particularly disastrous
evening, he announced to his friends, "I
take an oath, I'll never pick up a card
again.' After a moment's pause, he added,
'Unless, of course, I have guests who want
to play. . . Or, unless I am a guest in another
man's house.' He paused again. 'Or whatever
circumstances arise.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

Abstaining is favorable both to the head and the pocket.
--Horace Greeley (1811—1872)
American newspaper editor.

Love causes more pain than pleasure. Pleasure is only
illusory. Reason would command us to avoid love, if it
were not for the fatal sexual impulse — therefore it
were best to be castrated.
--Karl von Hartmann (1842—1906)
German metaphysical philosopher.
_Philosophe des Unbewursten_ [1869]

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_Rasselas_ [1759]

The first thing men do when they have
renounced pleasure, through decency,
lassitude, or for the sake of health,
is to condemn it in others. Such conduct
denotes a kind of latent affection for
the very things they left off; they
would like no one to enjoy a pleasure
they can no longer indulge in; and thus
they show their feelings of jealousy.
--Jean de La Bruy่re (1645—1696)
French essayist and moralist.
"Of Mankind"

Prohibition makes you want to cry into your
beer and denies you the beer to cry into.
--Don Marquis (1878—1937)
American poet and journalist.
"Sun Dial Time" [1936]

Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism,
the very perfection, of reason.
--Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778)
French philosopher and novelist.

A life which goes excessively against
natural impulse is. . . likely to
involve effects of strain that may be
quite as bad as indulgence in forbidden
impulses would have been. People who
live a life which is unnatural beyond
a point are likely to be filled with
envy, malice and uncharitableness.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
"Authority and the Individual"

-

Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless
Christmas dinner's dark and blue
When you stop and try to see it
From the turkey's point of view.

Sunday dinner isn't sunny
Easter feasts are just bad luck
When you see it from the viewpoint
Of a chicken or a duck.

Oh how I once loved tuna salad
Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too
'Til I stopped and looked at dinner
From the dinner's point of view.

--Shel Silverstein (1930—1999)
Ameican poet and songwriter.

-

-

The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise
and abstinence, to live as if he were poor.
--Sir William Temple (1628—1699)
English statesman and diplomat.
John Timbs
_Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 169 [1829]

& see:

A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body
without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly
the worst ingredients of poverty.
--Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696—1782)
Scottish lawyer, agriculturalist, and philosopher.

-



Click picture to ZOOM
ABSURDITIES

.
.


see: "IMPOSSIBLE"
see: "NONSENSE"
see: "SILLINESS"


Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly
inconsistent with one's own opinion.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
(Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

I judge the notion of the absurd to be essential and
consider that it can stand as the first of my truths.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won
the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays_ [1955 English ed.]
{published in French in 1942}, "An Absurd Reasoning: Philosophical Suicide"

Every absurdity has now a champion to defend it: and as he
is generally much in the wrong, so he has always much to
say; for error is ever talkative.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].

Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it.
--Jules Renard (1864—1910)
French novelist and dramatist.

There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly
planted in the human head if you only begin to impose
it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with
an air of great solemnity.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.

Those who can make you believe absurdities
can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire (Fran็ois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.




ABUSE

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.

see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links


Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Bible
Proverbs 9:7 NIV

Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who
affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting.
When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that
it is your own opinion which provokes you.
--Epictetus (55—135)
Greek philosopher.

Abuse is the weapon of the vulgar.
--Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793—1860)
American publisher and children's books
under the pseudonym of Peter Parley.

-

Abuse a man unjustly and you will make friends for him.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.


Don't abuse your friends and expect them to consider it criticism.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.

-

It is better a man should be abused than forgotten.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.

I do not waste my time in answering abuse; I thrive
under it like a field that benefits by the manure
that is carted on to it.
--Henry Labouch่re (1831—1912)
British politician and writer.
In Algar Labouchere Thorold
_The Life of Henry Labouchere_, p. 454 [1913]

I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony,
when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If
that appears to you too trifling a cause, say for what
cause you would have a cook flogged.
--Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis] (38/41—103)
Roman poet.
_Epigrams_ [86-98], bk. VIII

The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel
beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.
The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever
afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach.
Or, again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell
until it is misery to carry within the body, easily chafed
and hurt by the most ordinary things.
--Carson Smith McCullers (1917—1967)
American author.

I never yet heard man or woman much abused, that I was
not inclined to think the better of them; and to transfer any
suspicion or dislike to the person who appeared to take
delight in pointing out the defects of a fellow-creature.
--Jane Porter (1776—1850)
Scottish novelist.

There are none more abusive to others than
they that lie most open to it themselves;
but the humor goes round, and he that laughs
at me today will have somebody to laugh at
him tomorrow.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have
to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896)
American writer and philanthropist.
[sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher].
_Uncle Tom's Cabin_ [1852], ch. 20

The man that lays his hand on woman,
Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch
Whom 'twere gross flattery to name a coward.
--John Tobin (1770—1804)
English dramatist.
_The Honey Moon_ [1805], act II, sc. 1

Invective may be a sharp weapon, but overuse blunts its edge.
Even when the denunciation is just and true it is an error of art
to indulge it too long.
--John Tyndall (1820—1893)
British natural philosopher.

-

They do say, Mrs M, that verbal insults hurt more than
physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as you will
soon discover when I stick this toasting fork into your
head.
--dialogue, "Sense and Senility" Black Adder [Edmund]

-----

flagellate (verb) ['flๆ-j๊-leyt]
To whip or scourge; to punish by whipping.

fulminate [FUL-muh-nayt], intransitive verb:
1. To issue or utter verbal attacks or censures
authoritatively or menacingly.
2. To explode; to detonate.
transitive verb:
1. To utter or send out with denunciations or censures.
2. To cause to explode.
Ex.: He lets others fulminate on his behalf while he maintains
his gentlemanly demeanor.
--Richard Sandomir, "Cablevision's Dolan Makes the Deal
Only When He's Ready,"
_New York Times_ [6 December 1998]

harangue (verb) [h๊-'rๆng]
Verbal harassment, a tirade; a ranting uncontrolled preachment or
piece of writing focused on a subject of interest only to the
speaker or author.

obloquy [OB-luh-kwee], noun:
1. Strongly condemnatory or abusive language or utterance.
2. The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of public
blame, abuse, or condemnation; ill repute.

vituperate (verb) [vI-'tu-p๊r-yet or -'tyu (British)]
To scold extremely harshly and with abusive language, to
furiously verbally abuse.
The noun is "vituperation" [vI-tu-p๊r-'ey-sh๊n] and the
adjective, "vituperative" [vI-'tu-p๊r-๊-tiv].


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