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Impossible Quotes

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Impossible Quotes

“Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations that it must regulate -- something like squaring the circle, or finding perpetual motion? That is the reason why, wearied of the struggle, you fall back on absolutism and force.”

ThinkingDoeReasonSeemsFallForceSocialNumbersStruggleImagineImpossibleFindingsRelationCirclesReason WhyContractsPerpetualFall BackSocial ContractAbsolutismPerpetual Motion
Book:General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century
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“In the case of some people, not even if we had the most accurate scientific knowledge, would it be easy to persuade them were we to address them through the medium of that knowledge; for a scientific discourse, it is the privilege of education to appreciate, and it is impossible that this should extend to the multitude.”

PeopleIfsShouldEasyCasesImpossibleAppreciatePrivilegeMediumsAddressesAccurateMultitudesDiscourseScientific Knowledge
Book:Treatise on Rhetoric: Literally Translated from the Greek
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“There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes.”

KnowsFirstsTwoImportantReasonPhilosophyOpinionImpossibleMiddleIgnoranceTruth IsImportant ThingsThreatExtremesSensibleQuestsUnnecessaryMiddle GroundTwo ExtremesSocratic
Author:Allan Bloom
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“It is impossible to decide whether a particular detail of the Pythagorean universe was the work of the master, or filled in by a pupil a remark which equally applies to Leonardo or Michelangelo . But there can be no doubt that the basic features were conceived by a single mind; that Pythagoras of Samos was both the founder of a new religious philosophy, and the founder of Science, as the word is understood today.”

MindPhilosophyTodayUniverseReligiousDoubtImpossibleParticularMastersUnderstoodFilledDetailsFeaturesNo DoubtFoundersRemarksPupilsLeonardoReligious PhilosophyFilled In
Book:The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe
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“It is impossible to pursue a successful literary career and follow the advice of all one's 'best friends'.I feel compelled to follow the light which my own intellect & judgement cast upon my way, rather than any one of the many conflicting rays which other minds would lend me.”

WayFeelsMindLightMy OwnCareersSuccessfulImpossibleAdviceCastsIntellectPursueMy WayJudgementRaysCompelled
Book:Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)
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“The heart must be kept tender and pliable; otherwise agnosticism converts to skepticism. In such a case, the value of apologetics is voided, for apologetics is aimed at persuading doubters, not at refuting the defiant. He who demands a kind of proof that the nature of the case renders impossible, is determined that no possible evidence shall convince him.”

HeartKindValuesCasesImpossibleDemandEvidenceDeterminedProofConvinceSkepticismAgnosticismDoubtersPersuadingApologetic
Author:Edward John Carnell
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“I think that the way to have style is to accept where your body is right now, heavier or skinnier, whether you're going to change in the future and dress it as it is. The fact is you can always find clothes. It may be harder for plus sized people, I completely understand that. But I don't believe that it's impossible to dress with style.”

PeopleThinkingWayBelieveMayFactsBodyAcceptingImpossibleStyleRight NowClothesHarderDressesDon't BelieveYour BodyPlus
Author:Stacy London
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“We learn that Comrade [President of South Africa Nelson] Mandela has announced in a speech that he hopes for a bright future in South Africa for ‘liberty’ and ‘equality.’ Anyone who has thought about it realizes that liberty and equality are antithetical concepts. You can have one, or you can have the other, but you certainly cannot have both. As to that, either concept is a rather futile goal. Equality is biologically impossible, and liberty is only obtainable in homogeneous populations very thinly spread.”

GoalPresidentRealizingLibertyImpossibleSpeechConceptsSouthPopulationSpreadSouth AfricaComradeNelsonBright FutureHomogeneousLiberty And Equality
Author:Jeff Cooper
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“I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.”

HumansSoundImpossiblePoetEqualTasksOriginalsAncientVentureRhymeTranslationsClosingIngenuityCouplets
Book:The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems. Now First Completed by the Introduction of Cowper's Private Correspondence
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“Modern" poetry is, essentially, an extension of romanticism; it is what romantic poetry wishes or finds it necessary to become. It is the end product of romanticism, all past and no future; it is impossible to go further by any extrapolation of the process by which we have arrived, and certainly it is impossible to remain where we are who could endure a century of transition ?”

EndsPastWishProcessImpossibleModernCenturyProductsEndurePoetry IsTransitionExtensionsRomanticismRomantic PoetryModern Poetry
Author:Randall Jarrell
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“The American system demands success, and in order to succeed we must first believe that we can. Yet our society, with its intolerance of failure and poverty, traps millions of people in positions where any kind of success seems impossible to contemplate, and in which failure itself is a kind of passive rebellion against their own misery and the social system which created it in the first place. To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it.”

PeopleWorldFirstsBelieveKindSeemsOrderSocialAcceptingPovertyMillionsImpossiblePositionSucceedDemandMiseryOur SocietyRebellionContemplatingIntolerancePassiveTrapsRise AboveSocial SystemsOrder To SucceedRise Above It
Author:Michael Korda
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“In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.”

PeopleTryingStoriesAmericaSpiritSimpleImpossibleGenerationsReadyCreedsOddsUnlikelyNot ReadyYes We CanImpossible Odds
Book:Change We Can Believe In
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“Nothing is more human than for man to desire naturally things impossible to his nature. It is, indeed, the property of a nature which is not closed up in matter like the nature of physical things, but which is intellectual or infinitized by the spirit. It is the property of a metaphysical nature. Such desires reach for the infinite, because the intellect thirsts for being and being is infinite.”

MenHumansMatterSpiritDesireImpossibleIntellectualInfinitePropertyIntellectThirstMetaphysicalPhysical Things
Book:Approaches to God
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“Contemporary Christian proclamation is faced with the question whether, when it demands faith from men and women, it expects them to acknowledge this mythical world picture from the past. If this is impossible, it has to face the question whether the New Testament proclamation has a truth that is independent of the mythical world picture, in which case it would be the task of theology to demythologize the Christian proclamation.”

IfsMenWorldWould BeChristianPastFacesCasesImpossibleDemandMen And WomenTasksIndependentTheologyContemporaryAcknowledgeTestamentNew TestamentProclamationContemporary Christian
Author:Rudolf Bultmann
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“It is impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve, especially a mythical world picture, now that all of our thinking is irrevocably formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be simply arbitrariness; to make such acceptance a demand of faith would be to reduce faith to a work.”

ThinkingWorldWould BePastImpossibleAcceptanceDemandBlindMythologyResolveSheerTestamentNew TestamentBlind Acceptance
Author:Rudolf Bultmann
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“I love stories where the impossible appears believable, plausible and real. Maybe it's silly, but it's one of the reasons Michael Crichton's writing always appealed to me: he took outlandish ideas and made them seem completely within the realm of possibility. I remember reading "Jurassic Park" and feeling like: "Oh, yeah - no, that's totally happening right now. They're bringing back dinosaurs!"”

WritingMadeIdeasRealReasonStoriesFeelingsSeemsRememberReadingImpossiblePossibilityRight NowHappeningsYeahSillyLove StoryRealmsParksDinosaursPlausibleBelievableOutlandishJurassic ParkRealm Of Possibility
Author:J. J. Abrams
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“I tremble for our world, where, in the smallest ways, we find it impossible, as Marshall Hodgson enjoined, to find room for the other in our minds. If we cannot accommodate a viewpoint in a friend without resorting to unkindness, how can we hope to heal the terrible problems of our planet? I no longer think that any principle or opinion is worth anything if it makes you unkind or intolerant.”

IfsThinkingWorldWayMindProblemRoomsOpinionPrinciplesImpossiblePlanetsTerribleHealOur WorldSmallestOur PlanetViewpointsAccommodateUnkindUnkindness
Book:The Spiral Staircase
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“Every mile marker can be met with some measure of trepidation, in a race or in life. Am I on target? Do I have what it takes to finish strong? Am I taking care to stay nourished so I can endure? Is my training proving to be sufficient? Am I prepared for the hills? It is impossible to fathom the full distance, so we make our way to the next mile marker, and the next, checking in with ourselves as we go.”

WayI CanCareNextStrongRaceImpossibleMetsProveTrainingDistancePreparedEndureMilesHillsSufficientTargetFathomMarkersTrepidationFinish Strong
Author:Kristin Armstrong
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“We lost not only through death, but also by leaving and being left, by changing and letting go and moving on. And our losses include not only our separations and departures from those we love, but our conscious and unconscious losses of romantic dreams, impossible expectations, illusions of freedom and power, illusions of safety -- and the loss of our own younger self, the self that thought it would always be unwrinkled and invulnerable and immortal.”

SelfDreamMovingLostLeftLossImpossibleLetting GoIllusionExpectationsConsciousSafetyLeavingSeparationUnconsciousImmortalDepartureThose We LoveLetting Go And Moving OnConscious And UnconsciousYounger SelfIllusion Of Freedom
Author:Judith Viorst
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“Many of us, utterly overcome by Tamas, the dark and heavy demon of inertia, are saying nowadays that it is impossible, that India is decayed, bloodless and lifeless, too weak ever to recover; that our race is doomed to extinction. It is a foolish and idle saying. No man or nation need be weak unless he chooses, no man or nation need perish unless he deliberately chooses extinction.”

MenNeedsNationsDarkRaceImpossibleWeakOvercomingIndiaHeavyFoolishDemonIdleDoomedExtinctionSaying NoInertiaLifeless
Author:Sri Aurobindo
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