Ability Quote by James Thurber

“Sophistication might be described as the ability to cope gracefully with a situation involving the presence of a formidable menace to one's poise and…

— James Thurber

Sophistication demands honesty; it does not require ill temper.

— Irwin Edman

What is a sophisticate? He is a man who thinks he can swim better than he can and sometimes he drowns.

— Oscar Hammerstein II

“But does psychological sophistication override a sense that some actions are just plain bad? How much of human behaviour, in the end, can one…

— Helen Garner

Enthusiasm, being the infirmity of bold and ambitious tempers, is naturally accompanied with aspirit of liberty; as superstition, on the contrary, renders men tame…

— David Hume

The animosities of soverigns are temporary, and may be allayed; but those which seize the whole body of people, and of a people too,…

— Thomas Jefferson

Asceticism is the trifling of an enthusiast with his power, a puerile coquetting with his selfishness or his vanity, in the absence of any…

— Florence Nightingale

The romantic notion that confinement would release the imagination to soar was nonsense

— Wale

Asceticism is the right way of thinking for those who have to extirpate their sensual drives because they are ravening beasts of prey. But…

— Friedrich Nietzsche

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it…

— Francis Bacon

“preoccupation with fantasies of success; exhibitionism and insatiable attention-getting maneuvers;”

— Joan D. Chittister

“I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling—to manifestations of mutual kindliness.”

— Emily Brontë