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Impossibility Quotes

Browse 475 quotes about Impossibility.

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Impossibility Quotes

“A millennial belief in a Holy God may have the effect of deepening the soul, but it is also obviously archaic, and modern influences would presently bring me up to date and reveal how antiquated my origins were. To turn away from those origins, however, has always seemed to me an utter impossibility. It would be a treason to my first consciousness to un-Jew myself.”

FirstsMaySoulWould BeTurnsBeliefConsciousnessInfluenceModernEffectsHolyJewImpossibilityTreasonMillennialsUp To DateHoly God
Book:There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction
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“Much of the magical effect that poetry gives of rendering everything it touches pellucid comes from the necessity of compression that it imposes. The impossibility of pausing in poetry as long as may be needed to make sense clear causes many a set of words actually deficient in linguistic workmanship to pass for an eloquent brevity.”

GivingMayLongCausesClearEffectsNeededMake SenseImpossibilityEloquentBrevityRenderingPausingWorkmanshipCompression
Author:Laura Riding
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“Do not mathematics and all sciences seem full of contradictions and impossibilities to the ignorant, which are all resolved and cleared to those that understand them?”

SeemsMathematicsIgnorantContradictionImpossibility
Book:The practical works of Richard Baxter: with a life of the author and a critical examination of his writings by William Orme
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“Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour.”

MenLongHappinessLyingImaginationCapableSightPressesDistanceFortuneWarmRuinsBlissGoodsNeglectImaginarySchemesSuperficialImpossibilityGlitterShowyDishonourBeggary
Book:The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator, no. 315-635
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“Never lie to a child about doctors or medicine or anything else; but if you feel, as some people seem to feel, that life without lying is an impossibility, at least don't lie about the amount of pain likely to result from a surgical procedure, or about the taste of some medicine. If you know that something to be done will hurt, say so; if a mixture to be swallowed is unpleasant, say so. If you deceive a child once in such matters, do not imagine that it will trust you again. You do not deserve trust, and you will not get it.”

PeopleIfsKnowsFeelsChildrenMatterDoneSeemsPainLyingHurtResultsImagineAmountTasteDeserveDoctorsMedicineImagine ThatDeceivingImpossibilityMixturesProceduresYou AgainNever LieDon't Lie
Book:The House and Home: A Practical Book
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“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one. What is most repellent in the System of Nature - after the recipe for making eels from flour - is the audacity with which it decides that there is no God, without even having tried the impossibility. If God did not exist, he would have to be invented." But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.”

IfsDoeOrderTeachDoubtConditionsCrySupremeAbsurdCertaintyPleasantImmenseDependenceRecipesImpossibilityAdmirableThere Is No GodAudacityFlourEels
Author:Baron d'Holbach
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“There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love...Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self-love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.”

LoveTryingSelfHateUniverseNamesAwarenessSelf LoveCallingOneselfConvictionConvincedFrustrationWarmthFormulasImpossibilityCondemnationLove Everyone
Author:Shunryu Suzuki
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“The impossibility of keeping Englishmen sober ashore was a constant source of complaint, It was the great weakness of 16th century English infantrymen, whose performance when sober was admired even by the Spaniards. Already it was true, as it was to be for centuries, that many saw and despised the drunken sailor ashore, but few knew and admired him at his work afloat.”

SawsCenturySourceWeaknessPerformancesConstantComplaintsSoberImpossibilityEnglishmenSailorDespisedSpaniardsInfantryman
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nations to the changed conditions.”

CountryWisdomHandsTodayLawPoliticsNationsWealthEconomyConditionsChangedElementsRelyLiberalismRepublicImpossibilityRely UponBayonetsConcentration Of Wealth
Author:James Madison
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“Obviously, if theism is a belief in a God and atheism is a lack of a belief in a God, no third position or middle ground is possible. A person can either believe or not believe in a God. Therefore, our previous definition of atheism has made an impossibility out of the common usage of agnosticism to mean "neither affirming nor denying a belief in God."”

IfsBelieveMeanPersonsMadeBeliefCommonAtheismMiddlePositionThirdsDefinitionsPositive AtheismImpossibilityAgnosticismBelief In GodUsageTheismAffirmingMiddle Ground
Book:An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism
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“A life lived in chaos is an impossibility for the artist. No matter how unstructured may seem the painter's garret in Paris or the poet's pad in Greenwich Village, the artist must have some kind of order or he will proudce a very small body of work. To create a work of art, great or small, is work, hard work, and work requires discipline and order.”

KindMayArtMatterHardBodySeemsArtistOrderPoetHard WorkDisciplineChaosPainterParisWorks Of ArtVillageImpossibilityPadsGreenwichGreenwich Village
Book:Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
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“When we are young the idea of death or failure is intolerable to us; even the possibility of ridicule we cannot bear. But we have also an unconquerable faith in our own stars, and in the impossibility of anything venturing to go against us. As we grow old we slowly come to believe that everything will turn out badly for us, and that failure is in the nature of things, but then we do not much mind what happens to us one way or the other. In this way a balance is obtained.”

WayMindBelieveIdeasHappensYoungTurnsStarsGrowsGenerationsPossibilityYouthBearsBalanceOne WayRidiculeImpossibilityUnconquerable
Author:Isak Dinesen
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“Romance is the truth of imagination and boyhood. Homer's horses clear the world at a bound. The child's eye needs no horizon to its prospect. The oriental tale is not too vast. Pearls dropping from trees are only falling leaves in autumn. The palace that grew up in a night merely awakens a wish to live in it. The impossibilities of fifty years are the commonplaces of five.”

WorldNeedsYearsChildrenEyeRomanceNightFallWishImaginationClearFiveTreeGrewGrew UpHorseBoundsTalesFiftyAutumnHorizonPearlsImpossibilityPalacesDroppingCommonplaceBoyhoodFalling Leaves
Book:Pleasures,objects and advantages of literature
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“The life-history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture, and by the time he is grown and able to take part in its activities, its habits are his habits, its beliefs his beliefs, its impossibilities his impossibilities.”

FirstsLittlesMomentsAbleCultureIndividualBeliefBornCommunityBirthHabitActivityShapesCreaturesBehaviorStandardsPatternsCustomsImpossibilityAccommodations
Author:Ruth Benedict
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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.”

MeanProblemWomenSidesInterestDecisionViewsImpossibleMiddleCoupleBalanceAbuseVictimFaultsTraumaRecoverySettlingBalancedDrsImpossibilityExplainingOppressorsEloquentStanceNeutralityAbusersPerpetratorsWholeheartedlyAbusive RelationshipAbused WomenRelationship ProblemWeak Women
Book:Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men
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“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

InspirationalHumorMotivationalTimeCommunityLeadershipWorkImpossibleSocietyStrengthPossibilityPositiveHard WorkDepressionAchievementSaintProductivityProductiveTime ManagementGood WorkNew BeginningsNot Giving UpImpossibilityStarting OverDoing GoodDon't Give UpWork HarderDoing YouWork DoneImpossible ThingsHard Work Pays OffNew Year New BeginningNew PossibilitiesInspirational GoalNew StartNew Year New StartWork To Be DonePossible And ImpossibleMotivational JobInspirational New BeginningNew Day New BeginningEndings Being New BeginningsEnergizingNew Life New BeginningInspirational AchievementInspired To WorkOvercoming DepressionHard Work MotivationalMotivational AchievementInspirational Hard WorkMotivation And Hard WorkTake Nothing For GrantedStarting A New BeginningProductive LifeFranciscansNew Beginning LifePeople With DepressionFamous Hard WorkingOffice WorkHelp With DepressionDepression InspirationalProductive WorkClinical DepressionGreat Beginnings
Author:Francis of Assisi
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