Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.

One should stick to the sort of thing for which one was made; I tried to be an herbalist, Whereas I should keep to the butchers trade.

It is easier to appear worthy of positions that we have not got, than of those that we have.

Our vanity desires that what we do best should be considered what is hardest for us.

Skills vary with the man. We must tread a straight path and strive by that which is born in us.

Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.

I can levitate birds. No one cares.

Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

It is always our inabilities that vex us.