People have been asking me what is the meaning of the quote: “Ability will never catch up with the demand for it“?
Let’s break the line up and see what it means.
The word “ability” means the power or capacity to do something.
It could be a talent, skill, expertise, competency or proficiency in a particular area.
Ability Will Never Catch Up With The Demand For It Meaning
For this case, the word “catch up” means come close or take after.
And “demand” simply means the need, desire or requirement.
So the quote “Ability will never catch up with the demand for it“, means people will be always demanding, asking or searching for skill or capacity to do do something.
To be precise, the need or requirement for ability is always much more than ability itself.
So in other words, if you have any worthwhile capability or talent, you need not have to worry.
People will seek you out. Or you yourself can make use of your ability productively or profitably.
Interestingly, this quotation “Ability will never catch up with the demand for it” is attributed to both Confucius and Malcolm Forbes.
But I have yet to find any of them (websites and books) cite the authoritative source of this particular quote.
As you know, most established quotation websites and even books, they do not cite the sources.
For instance, you can find this quote credited to Malcolm Forbes in this book, “Quote Unquote: A Handbook Of Quotations” by S. P. Singh.
This book, the quote is ascribed to Confucious, “Quotes of Confucius And Their Interpretations, A Words Of Wisdom Collection Book” by D. Brewer.
Even if they do, most of the time the so-called sources are not reliable or authentic.
Here is a collection of authentic Confucious quotations with citations.
Anyway, here is a selected selection of ability quotations with citations that linked to their original sources.