Literary notes about ability (AI summary)
Writers employ the term "ability" to capture a spectrum of human potential and limitations, imbuing characters and themes with rich layers of meaning. It can describe a virtue or strength that facilitates personal or social success, as when a character's friendships or talents help them advance in life ([1], [2]). At times it is used to stress the extent to which innate or acquired skills enable one to surmount obstacles or master an art, even when those skills are measured against certain standards of judgment or morality ([3], [4]). Conversely, the term may highlight the constraints of human competence or the delicate balance between inherent capability and external demands ([5], [6]). Overall, "ability" remains a focal point in literature for interrogating the interplay between personal efficacy and the forces that shape human destiny.
- The ability to cultivate friends is a powerful aid to success.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - Yet his success as a scientist, a statesman, and a diplomat, as well as socially, was in no little part due to his ability as a writer.
— from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin - Ability to use even in a masterly way an established technique gives no warranty of artistic work, for the latter also depends upon an animating idea.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Power, whether in the hands of a god or of a man, is always understood to consist in the ability to harm as well as to help.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche - I could creep into the space beneath the confessor’s seat, but it was so small that I doubted my ability to stay there after the door was shut.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Without a more careful conservation of human ability and talent the world cannot secure the services which its greater needs call for.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois
