What one has to do, usually can be done.

If you cannot accomplish a thing, leave it and pass to another which you can accomplish.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

We may complain and cavil at the anarchy which is the amateurs natural element, but in soberness we must agree that if the amateur did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.

As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man.

The same man cannot well be skilled in everything; each has his special excellence.

In a world as empirical as ours, a youngster who does not know what he is good at will not be sure what he is good for.

Tis skill, not strength, that governs a ship.

Most do violence to their natural aptitude, and thus attain superiority in nothing.