Capacity.........................

19.  Because a thing is difficult for you, do not therefore suppose it to be beyond mortal power.  On the contrary, if anything is possible and proper for man to do, assume that it must fall within your capacity.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

Reverence...............

          leaning back on a
                       bench look straight up
                       at the blue sky duomo

                       all the church we'll ever need


-Gary Snyder, from This Present Moment:  New Poems

An unusual gift................

In life, there is no gift as overlooked or as inevitable as failure.  I've had quite a few and have learned to relish them, because if you do the forensics you'll find clues about where to make adjustments and how to eventually accomplish your task.  I'm not talking about a mental list either.  After the second attempt, I wrote everything out long-hand, but didn't start with the obvious issue, my grip.  Initially, I brainstormed everything that went well, because in every failure a lot of good things will have happened, and we must acknowledge them.

-David Goggins,  Can't Hurt Me:  Master Your Mind And Defy The Odds

On understanding....................

      While his mind was neither quick nor facile, young Lincoln possessed singular powers of reasoning and comprehension, unflagging curiosity, and a fierce, almost irresistible, compulsion to understand the meaning of what he heard, read, or was taught.  "When I was a mere child," Lincoln later said, "I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.  I do not think I ever got angry an anything else in my life."  When he "go on the hunt for an idea" he could not sleep until he "caught it," and even then was not able to rest until he had "bounded it north and bounded it south, and bounded it east and bounded it west."

-Doris Kearns Goodwin,  Leadership: In Turbulent Times