Possibility Quotes - Page 13

• In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention.

  Simone Weil

  Stars, Lying, Moon

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.121, Psychology Press

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• Let me tell you what is coming.... Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet... You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence...but I doubt it.

  Sam Houston

  Brother, Husband, War

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• 'God put the rainbow in the clouds, not just in the sky'... It is wise to realize we already have rainbows in our clouds, or we wouldn't be here. If the rainbow is in the clouds, then in the worst of time, there is the possibility of seeing hope... We can say 'I can be a rainbow in the cloud for someone yet to be.' That may be our calling.

  Maya Angelou

  Wise, Clouds, Color

  Harrisburg Forum, November 30, 2001.

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• All motion is cyclic. It circulates to the limits of its possibilities and then returns to its starting point.

  Robert Collier

  Limits, Return, Action

  Robert Collier (2013). “The Law of the Higher Potential”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

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• God is the original, master forgiver. Each time we grope our reluctant way through the minor miracle of forgiving, we are imitating his style. I am not at all sure that any of us would have had imagination enough to see the possibilities in this way to heal the wrongs of this life had he not done it first.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Forgiveness, Imagination, Miracle

  Lewis B. Smedes, Jeff Crosby (2007). “Days of Grace Through the Year”, InterVarsity Press

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• In our time, what is at issue is the very nature of man, the image we have of his limits and possibilities as a man. History is not yet done with its exploration of the limits and meanings of human nature.

  C. Wright Mills

  Men, Issues, Curiosity

  C. Wright Mills (2000). “The Sociological Imagination”, p.171, Oxford University Press

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• Anarchism does not repudiate the right of ownership, but it has a conception thereof sufficiently different from [others'] to include the possibility of an end of that social organization which will arise, not out of the ruins of government, but out of the transformation of government into voluntary association for defence.

  Benjamin Tucker

  Government, Organization, Doe

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• It was one thing to have guessed it, another to have had that guess confirmed beyond possibility of refutation.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Statistics, Refutation, One Thing

  Arthur C. Clarke (2012). “The City and the Stars”, p.22, RosettaBooks

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• The disaster... is what escapes the very possibility of experience—it is the limit of writing. This must be repeated: the disaster de-scribes.

  Maurice Blanchot

  Writing, Limits, Disaster

  Maurice Blanchot (2015). “The Writing of the Disaster”, p.16, U of Nebraska Press

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• Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions. It seems almost as if progress itself and our fight against the increase of entropy intrinsically must end in the downhill path from which we are trying to escape.

  Norbert Wiener

  Fighting, Progress, Trying

  Norbert Wiener (1988). “The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And Society”, p.32, Hachette UK

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• We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities.

  Jack Kornfield

  Pain, Heart, Warrior

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• From now on there is no longer any development immanent to art. The times have passed for history of art with a logical sense. There is no longer even any consistency in absurdities; the development has been wound up, and what comes now already exists: the syncretism of a muddle of all styles and possibilities, post-history.

  Arnold Gehlen

  Art, Consistency, Style

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• It will always be the same possibilities, in sum or on the average, that go on repeating themselves until a man comes along who does not value the actuality above idea. It is he who first gives the new possibilities their meaning, their direction, and he awakens them.

  Robert Musil

  Men, Average, Ideas

  Robert Musil (2015). “The Man Without Qualities: Picador Classic”, p.18, Pan Macmillan

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• Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything, or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into the infinite further responsibilities for study and contemplation and interest and praise. Beyond all and in all is God.

  Thomas Merton

  Looks, Study, Infinite

  "Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation".

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• If we live with possibilities we are exiles from the present which is given us by God to be our own, homeless and displaced in a future or a past which are not ours because they are always beyond our reach. The present is our right place, and we can lay hands on whatever it offers us.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Past, Hands

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.231, Shambhala Publications

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• There are some people in your life who bring back old memories. And there are others - your first kiss, your first love, your first sex - who, the moment you see them, bring a spark...and something far more potent. They bring back your old life and with that, potential. And possibilities. And the feeling that if you were back in that time, life could be so very different from where you're stuck right now. That's the most tantalizing thing....I want my potential back.

  Brad Meltzer

  Sex, Memories, Love You

  Brad Meltzer (2011). “The Inner Circle: The Culper Ring Trilogy 1”, p.148, Hachette UK

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• The possibilities and probabilities are all we have to work with in medicine, though. What we are drawn to in this imperfect science, what we in fact covet in our way, is the alterable moment-the fragile but crystalline opportunity for one's know-how, ability, or just gut instinct to change the course of another's life for the better.

  Atul Gawande

  Opportunity, Medicine, Way

  Atul Gawande (2010). “Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science”, p.251, Profile Books

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• What I think about when I frequent the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan [Museum of Art], and I look at these artifacts that are taken out of context and how we're forced to view them as objects, as relics, as sculpture- static. But what's interesting is what it allows me to do in my head in terms of imagining what the possibilities are or imagining the role in which they played within a particular culture which I'm fascinated by.

  Nick Cave

  Art, Taken, Thinking

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• No episode is a priori condemned to remain an episode forever, for every event, no matter how trivial, conceals within itself the possibility of sooner or later becoming the cause of other events and thus changing into a story or an adventure. Episodes are like land mines. The majority of them never explode, but the most unremarkable of them may someday turn into a story that will prove fateful to you.

  Milan Kundera

  Adventure, Land, Forever

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• To be successful in business and life, spot the possibilities while others look for problems.

  Robin Sharma

  Successful, Looks, Problem

  FaceBook post by Robin Sharma from Sep 10, 2012

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• For though we stubbornly cling, believing in our moment of hunger that there is no other possibility of love, we only have to let go of what we want so badly and our life will unfold. For love is everywhere.

  Mark Nepo

  Letting Go, Believe, Love Is

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• Having loving and supporting parents didn't make me feel any better about the possibility of seeing my personal life splashed across newspapers and tabloids.

  Mary Cheney

  Loving Life, Parent, Tabloids

  Mary Cheney (2006). “Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life”, Pocket Books

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• Do you suppose a woman knows why she loves? Does she select? Does she say to herself, 'Go to! here is a distinguished statesman with presidential possibilities; I shall proceed to fall in love with him.' or, 'I shall set my heart upon this musician, whose fame is on every tongue?' or 'this financier, who controls the world's money markets?'

  Kate Chopin

  Falling In Love, Heart, Presidential

  Kate Chopin (2013). “The Awakening: And Selected Short Stories - Beyond the Bayou, Ma'ame Pelagie, Desiree's Baby, Respectable Woman, Kiss, Pair of Silk Stockings, Locket, Reflection (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.115, Lulu Press, Inc

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• In practice it is possible to determine directly the skin colour and hence the ethnic affiliations of the ancient Egyptians by microscopic analysis in the laboratory; I doubt if the sagacity of the researchers who have studied the question has overlooked the possibility.

  Cheikh Anta Diop

  Practice, Doubt, Skins

  Cheikh Anta Diop, E. Curtis Alexander, Mwalimu Imara Mwadilifu (1984). “Cheikh Anta Diop: an African scientist : an axiomatic overview of his teachings and thoughts”, Eca Assoc

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• The influence of geographic factors diminishes as technology grows. The character and contour of a terrain may offer opportunities for agriculture, mining, or trade, but only the imagination and initiative of leaders, and the hardy industry of followers, can transform the possibilities into fact...Man, not the earth, makes civilization.

  Ariel Durant

  Character, Technology, Opportunity

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