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Impossible Quotes

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Impossible Quotes

“From the ethical point of view, no one can escape responsibility with the excuse that he is only an individual, on whom the fate of the world does not depend. Not only can this not be known objectively for certain, because it is always possible that it will depend precisely on the individual, but this kind of thinking is also made impossible by the very essence of ethics, by conscience and the sense of responsibility.”

ThinkingWorldKindDoeMadeCertainIndividualViewsResponsibilityKnownFateImpossibleDependsEthicsConscienceEssenceExcusePoint Of ViewEthicalSense Of Responsibility
Author:Gyorgy Lukacs
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“From the opening lines, Sleeping with Schubert is a hilarious, whimsical romp through the looking glass of a great musical mystery. The writing snaps, crackles, and pops with humor as Bonnie Marson makes Schubert a sexy, happening kind of guy who gives new meaning to our dreaming the impossible.”

GivingWritingKindDreamGuyLinesSleepImpossibleMysteryHappeningsMusicalGlassesSexyPopsOpeningSnapsGreat MusicWhimsicalThrough The Looking GlassSchubert
Author:Jonis Agee
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“The secondary Imagination I consider as an echo of the former, co-existing with the conscious will, yet still as identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate: or where this process is rendered impossible, yet still at all events it struggles to idealize and to unify. It is essentially vital, even as all objects (as objects) are essentially fixed and dead.”

KindStillsOrderProcessImaginationStruggleImpossibleEventsObjectsDegreesConsciousFormerPrimariesOperationsFixedAgencyEchoesIdentical
Book:Biographia Literaria: Top Biography
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“The way to solve the conflict between human values and technology needs is not to run away from technology. That's impossible. The way to resolve the conflict is to break down the barriers of dualistic thought that prevent a real understanding of what technology is--not an exploitation of nature, but a fusion of nature and the human spirit into a new kind of creation that transcends both.”

WayNeedsHumansKindRealRunningSpiritValuesUnderstandingBreakTechnologyImpossibleCreationConflictSolveBarriersResolveRunning AwayExploitationBreaking DownHuman SpiritFusionHuman Values
Author:Robert M. Pirsig
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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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“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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“Though an inheritance of acres may be bequeathed, an inheritance of knowledge and wisdom cannot. The wealthy man may pay others for doing his work for him; but it is impossible to get his thinking done for him by another, or to purchase any kind of self-culture.”

ThinkingMenKindMaySelfDoneCulturePayImpossibleWealthyInheritanceAcresKnowledge And Wisdom
Book:Self-help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance
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“Vanity is so closely allied to virtue, and to love the fame of laudable actions approaches so near the love of laudable actions for their own sake, that these passions are more capable of mixture than any other kinds of affection; and it is almost impossible to have the latter without some degree of the former.”

KindActionPassionVirtueImpossibleFameDegreesApproachCapableSakeAffectionFormerVanityLatterMixtures
Book:Essays Moral, Political, Literary: Revision of Great Book
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“We should always keep an open mind about any new phenomenon in nature. To merely say that's impossible, therefore it doesn't exist, is to commit a serious error. A much better approach would be to say That's quite unlikely, but show me the evidence you have that says that it may be so. It would be the height of arrogance to think that man knows everything possible about the Universe or the Earth. There are many things yet to be discovered, and that is why we have scientific research (or any kind of research). That should be the rationalist's approach to parapsychology and the occult.”

ThinkingKnowsMenShouldMindKindMayShowsWould BeEarthUniverseImpossibleAtheismSeriousApproachResearchEvidenceErrorsPositive AtheismCommitHeightArrogancePhenomenonShow MeUnlikelyOpen MindOccultScientific ResearchKeep An Open MindParapsychology
Author:Gordon Stein
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“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind--no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be--there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”

NeedsKindIdeasSometimesMatterUseMightGrowsBusinessCitiesEconomySuccessfulImpossibleStreetsBuildingProveErrorsTrialsConstructionNew IdeasProfitableVigorousExperimentationOverheadOld IdeasOld Buildings
Author:Jane Jacobs
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“Terrifying. . . . A Dark Matter is populated with vivid, sympathetic characters, and driven by terrors both human and supernatural. It's the kind of book that's impossible to put down once it has been picked up. It kept me reading far into the night. Straub builds otherworldly terror without ever losing touch with his attractive cast of youngsters, who age beautifully. Put this one high on your list.”

HumansKindHas BeensBookMatterCharacterAgeNightReadingDarkImpossibleLosingCastsTerrorDrivenListsAttractiveVividSympatheticYoungstersDark Matter
Author:Stephen King
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“When we fall utterly, something gathers us up. But our falling must be without reservation, without expectation, without hope, though not hopeless. You cant plan that kind of falling. When you abandon yourself utterly to life, the river will flow, and the log jam will free. Impossible is another word for grace. Who wouldve thought it, life takes another turn, and you are gathered up into a whole different way of seeing and being.”

WayKindDifferentWholeTurnsFallGracePlansImpossibleSeeingExpectationsFlowRiversDifferent WaysAbandonHopelessCantJamReservationsWithout Hope
Author:Roger Housden
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“We have to prepare for what life could become in 40 years. We need to outline what is possible and what is impossible with the non-renewable resources of the Earth. What role will technological improvement play? Taking all this into account, what kind of life can we produce in the best way for 10 billion people? That's a problem that needs to be solved.”

PeopleWayNeedsYearsKindPlayProblemEarthRolesImpossibleProduceResourcesAccountsBillionsImprovementBest WayTechnologicalOutlinesRenewable Resources
Author:Jacques Yves Cousteau
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“I came to the resolve that the attempt was not only worth trying, but should be tried in the very near future if we wanted at all to keep our flag flying; for I was sure as of my own existence that if another decade was allowed to pass without an endeavour of some kind or another to shake off an unjust yoke, the Irish people would sink into lethargy from which it would be impossible for any patriot . . . to arouse them . . .”

PeopleIfsShouldTryingKindWould BeWantedMy OwnExistenceImpossibleRepublicanDecadesFlyingShakesResolveFlagsPatriotUnjustEndeavourYokeLethargy
Author:James Stephens
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“It's only when movement becomes the most natural state in our lives that we can finally begin to enjoy the motion. And it's only when standing still becomes impossible that we can finally embrace the kinds of changes that are inevitable in our lives. We were not designed to stand still. If we were, we'd have at least three legs. We were designed to move. Our bodies are bodies that have walked across vast continents. Our bodies are bodies that have carried objects of art and war over great distances. We are no less mobile than our ancestors. We are athletes. We are warriors. We are human.”

IfsHumansKindArtStillsWarStatesBodyMovingThreeEnjoyNaturalOur LivesImpossibleMovementObjectsStandingEmbraceDistanceAthleteLegsWarriorInevitableAncestorContinentsMobileStanding StillThree Legs
Author:John Bingham
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“The aim is not to give human beings real goals that warrant belief, and tasks to share in, but to re-establish "belonging," although this kind of speech and thought is precisely calculated to avoid contact and so makes belonging impossible.”

GivingHumansKindRealBeliefGoalHuman BeingsImpossibleShareSpeechTasksAimContactBelongingBeing RealWarrants
Book:Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
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“I campaigned for [Barack] Obama for more than a year. I was in Iowa, Minnesota, California, Arizona - just traveling around to help get the word out. It was such a huge, spirited campaign, and so positive. But you travel around to cities in the U.S. now and there's just this hopelessness that has set in. It makes it hard to understand why it seems so impossible to make any kind of progressive change with an administration that is seemingly progressive, or why we keep encountering such political roadblocks to change.”

YearsKindHardHelpingSeemsPoliticalCitiesImpossibleHugeCampaignsAdministrationBarackCaliforniaProgressiveHopelessnessArizonaSpiritedIowaMinnesotaRoadblockProgressive Change
Author:Scarlett Johansson
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“I'm sort of optimistic about what we could do, but I'm very pessimistic about what we will do. I can't tell you that Al Gore's 10-year plan is impossible. I'm old enough to remember the Second World War - if we had a World War II-type mobilization, we might accomplish Gore's plan. In 1940 we were making tens of thousands of automobiles, and in 1941 we were making tens of thousands of airplanes. We mobilized as a nation. If we get that kind of mobilization as a nation or globally, then we could solve a lot of these problems.”

IfsWorldYearsKindI CanWarEnoughProblemMightRememberNationsPlansImpossibleTypeAccomplishSolveOptimisticWar Of The WorldsAlsWorld War IiAirplaneWorld War IAutomobileGorePessimisticSecond World WarMobilization
Author:Paul R. Ehrlich
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“I've had two great years, probably five good years. So I had 20 years of just kind of uncertainty and suffering and ego destruction and poverty. All these things. There's no way I'm ever going to catch up to the misery years. It's impossible... If I don't do anything dumb or I don't get a disease or something, and then I've got to five to eight years I think where it'll really be great and then it will start to degenerate like uranium, you know?”

IfsThinkingKnowsWayYearsKindTwoSufferingPovertyFiveImpossibleEgoDiseaseDestructionMiseryEightDumbUncertaintyDegeneratesUraniumGreat YearGood Years
Author:Louis C. K.
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“To reduce the interpretation of the causality of all kinds of climate changes and of global warming to one variable, CO2, or to a small proportion of one variable - human-induced CO2 - is impossible to accept. Elementary rationality and my decades-long experience with econometric modelling and statistical testing of scientific hypotheses tell me that it is impossible to make strong conclusions based on mere correlation of two (or more) time series.”

HumansKindLongTwoStrongAcceptingImpossibleSeriesMereClimateClimate ChangeDecadesConclusionAll KindsProportionGlobal WarmingInterpretationMore TimeRationalityHypothesisTestingVariablesCorrelationCo2CausalityModellingEconometrics
Author:Vaclav Klaus
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“What's impossible not to notice, though - it's all around us - is the diminution of American prose: How pedestrian it has become. Pick up any short story and listen to its voice, the tedious easy vernacular that mistakes transcription for realism. This would display an understandable pragmatism if it were a pandering to common-denominator readers; but it is, in fact, a kind of hifalultin literary ideology, the less-is-more Hemingway legacy put through an up-to-the-minute industrial blender.”

IfsKindFactsStoriesEasyVoiceCommonMistakeImpossibleMinutesReaderPicksIdeologyLegacyProseShort StoryDisplayRealismTediousPragmatismCommon DenominatorPedestriansLess Is MoreVernacularBlendersTranscription
Author:Cynthia Ozick
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“What kind of person would run for president of the United States in today's political climate? It would have to be somebody who's never really been drunk in public, who's never had an affair, who never shoplifted when they were a little boy, who never had any sort of counseling at all. I just don't know how you go through your life meeting people, experiencing everything you can, trying to absorb, and not make some of those mistakes. It's impossible.”

PeopleKnowsTryingKindLittlesPersonsStatesRunningTodayPoliticalPresidentUnitedMistakeBoysUnited StatesKnow HowImpossibleMeetingsClimateAffairDrunkLittle BoysCounselingExperiencing Everything
Author:Rob Lowe
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“Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was really one of the - whose name is impossible to pronounce - who was really one of the architects of this very aggressive American interventionist foreign policy, you know, really stand up to Russia, challenge them, not only Russia but China. He's changed his tune now and is basically advocating for a much more diplomatic and collaborative approach to the other power centers of the world that are just kind of moving on without us right now.”

KnowsWorldKindMovingNamesChallengesImpossiblePolicyChangedRight NowApproachChinaRussiaTunesAggressiveArchitectForeign PolicyDiplomaticAdvocatingCenter Of The World
Author:Jill Stein
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