Impossibility Quotes - Page 3

• Impossibility is a dictionary word.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Dictionary

  "They're Not Heavy; They're His People; 72-Year-Old Sri Chinmoy Offers An Uplift Beyond the Spiritual" by Corey Kilgannon, www.nytimes.com. July 1, 2004.

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• We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  New Year, Philosophy, Failure

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• To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.

  William Cobbett

  Wisdom, Independent, Independence

  William Cobbett (1829). “Advice to Young Men, and, incidentally, to Young Women, in the middle and higher ranks of life. In a series of letters, etc”, p.47

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• To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there.
  [Lat., Simul flare sorbereque haud facile
  Est: ego hic esse et illic simul, haud potui.]

  Plautus

  Blow, Ego, Easy

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• It is so easy to believe in pleasant impossibilities.

  Amelia B. Edwards

  Believe, Easy, Pleasant

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• The changes in our life must come from the impossibility to live otherwise than according to the demands of our conscience not from our mental resolution to try a new form of life.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Life, Change, Deep Thought

  graf Leo Tolstoy (1978). “Tolstoy's Letters: 1880-1910”

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• The very impossibility which I find to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Existence, Prove

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• It is not possible to be truly balanced in one's views of an abuser and an abused woman. As Dr. Judith Herman explains eloquently in her masterwork Trauma and Recovery, “neutrality” actually serves the interests of the perpetrator much more than those of the victim and so is not neutral. Although an abuser prefers to have you wholeheartedly on his side, he will settle contentedly for your decision to take a middle stance. To him, that means you see the couple's problems as partly her fault and partly his fault, which means it isn't abuse.

  Lundy Bancroft

  Couple, Women, Mean

  Lundy Bancroft (2003). “Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, p.287, Penguin

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• Impossible is just an opinion, nothing else!

  Vikas Khanna

  Opinion, Impossible

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• A [psychological] difficulty is not an impossibility.

  John Stuart Mill

  Psychological, Difficulty

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• All the fun is locking horns with impossibilities.

  Claes Oldenburg

  Inspirational, Fun, Horns

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• To expect an impossibility is madness.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Madness

  Marcus Aurelius (2013). “The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius”, p.31, Read Books Ltd

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• The impossibility of a retreat makes no difference in the situation of men resolved to conquer or die; and, believe me, my friends, if your conquest could be bought with the blood of your general, he would most cheerfully resign a life which he has long devoted to his country.

  James Wolfe

  Friends, Country, Believe

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• Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself.

  Alan Watts

  Inspiring, Frustration, Trying

  Alan Watts (1951). “The Wisdom of Insecurity”, Vintage

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• To get a traveling salesman drunk is the height of impossibility.

  Honore de Balzac

  Drunk, Height, Salesman

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• There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing.

  Sarah Josepha Hale

  Inspirational, Fear, Failure

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• Possibility is far more frightening than impossibility.

  Julia Cameron

  Possibility, Frightening

  Julia Cameron (2012). “The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”, p.91, Souvenir Press

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• We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.

  Vince Lombardi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Believe

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• The man of true genius never lives before his time, he never undertakes impossibilities, and always embarks on his enterprise at the suitable place and period. Though he may catch a glimpse of the coming light as it gilds the mountain top long before it reaches the eyes of his contemporaries, and he may hazard a prediction as to the future, he acts with the present.

  Joseph Henry

  Life, Future, Eye

  Joseph Henry (1886). “Scientific Writings”

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• First, In showing in how to avoid attempting impossibilities. Second, In securing us from important mistakes in attempting what is, in itself possible, by means either inadequate or actually opposed to the end in view. Thirdly, In enabling us to accomplish our ends in the easiest, shortest, most economical, and most effectual manner. Fourth, In inducing us to attempt, and enabling us to accomplish, object which, but for such knowledge, we should never have thought of understanding.
  On the ways that a knowledge of the order of nature can be of use.

  John Herschel

  Mistake, Knowledge, Mean

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• I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom of religion, it [fanaticism] could have arisen to the height you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy of the five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Ideas, Growth

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.358

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• Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with the reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity of looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a Theist.

  Charles Darwin

  Intelligent, Men, Feelings

  Charles Darwin (1887). “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin”, p.70, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• On the path to love, impossibilities are resolved by turning non-love into love.

  Deepak Chopra

  Love, Marriage, Spiritual

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• The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer.

  Fridtjof Nansen

  Possible And Impossible, Littles, Achieving The Impossible

  Quoted in Listener, 14 Dec. 1939 See Calonne 1; Santayana 14; Trollope 3

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• It always seems impossible until its done.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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