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Impossible Quotes

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Impossible Quotes

“Columbus was an Abraham, for he went out not knowing whither he went. Columbus was a Moses, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Only the man of faith is the man of power. Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible. God grant that to-day in that bark we may be wafted by God's blessing, and may land at last on the shores of Heaven, where we shall sing a sweeter Te Deum than that which awoke the echoes on the soil of virgin America, or those amid the splendors of the court at Barcelona.”

MenMayLastsAmericaHeavenCan DoKnowingImpossibleSeeingLandHe ManBlessingCourtInvisibleSoilGrantsShoreNot KnowingEchoesVirginsMosesAbrahamSplendorBarkColumbusBarcelona
Author:Robert Stuart MacArthur
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“If men pride themselves on the fact that Jesus Christ was born of their sex, the answer is that this was necessary for the sake of decency, for if he had been a woman, it would have been impossible for Jesus to go out at all hours of the day and the night and mingle with the crowds to convert them and to help and save mankind, without creating a scandal.”

IfsMenHas BeensFactsHelpingNightJesusSexChristBornHoursAnswersImpossibleMankindPrideCreatingJesus ChristSakeCrowdsScandalDecency
Author:Marie de Gournay
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“it is impossible for any mind of common honesty not to be revolted by the contradictions in their principles and practice. They inveigh against the governments of Europe, because, as they say, they favor the powerful and oppress the weak. ... [yet] you will see them with one hand hoisting the cap of liberty, and with the other flogging their slaves. You will see them one hour lecturing their mob on the indefeasible rights of man, and the next driving from their homes the children of the soil, whom they have bound themselves to protect by the most solemn treaties.”

MenMindChildrenHomeHandsGovernmentNextHoursPowerfulCommonLibertyPrinciplesPracticeRightsImpossibleHonestyProtectEuropeWeakSlaveBoundsFavorsDrivingSoilHypocrisyContradictionSolemnCapsTreatiesOne HourLecturingFlogging
Author:Frances Trollope
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“When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of 'greatness.' 'Greatness,' it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the 'great' man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a 'great' man can be blamed.”

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Book:War and Peace
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“To a woman nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships.”

MenSeemsImpossibleHe ManWorship
Book:The Gift of the Magi and Other New York Stories: The Skylight Room, The Voice of The City, The Cop and the Anthem, A Retrieved Information, The Last Leaf, The Ransom of Red Chief, The Trimmed Lamp and more
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“It is impossible to conceive how different things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did for millions of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it. It is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold numbers of ways, have been so grasped by the child who was born, so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived, that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him.”

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Author:Frederick Buechner
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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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“All too often we say of a man doing a good job that he is indispensable. A flattering canard, as so many disillusioned and retired and fired have discovered when the world seems to keep on turning without them. In business, a man can come nearest to indispensability by being dispensable in his current job. How can a man move up to new responsibilities if he is the only one able to handle his present tasks? It matters not how small or large the job you now have, if you have trained no one to do it as well, you're not available; you've made your promotion difficult if not impossible.”

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Author:Malcolm Forbes
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“There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random writing it would be impossible to overestimate--not to the artist but to the public.... Without them we would judge a man simply by his work; but at present the newspapers are trying hard to induce the public to judge a sculptor, for instance, never by his statues but by the way he treats his wife; a painter by the amount of his income and a poet by the colour of his necktie.”

MenWayShouldWritingTryingArtHardWould BeLawArtistWifeImpossiblePoetJudgingAmountOrdinaryTreatsHarmFoolishNewspapersIncomePainterInstanceColourStatuesSculptorsTrying HardOverestimateNeckties
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.”

IfsMenWayDoeSelfWould BeMovingMistakeImpossibleArgumentAbsolutesSkepticismConsideringPropositionsContradictoryValidityScepticismSceptic
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“... women learned one important lesson--namely, that it is impossible for the best of men to understand women's feelings or the humiliation of their position. When they asked us to be silent on our question during the War, and labor for the emancipation of the slave, we did so, and gave five years to his emancipation and enfranchisement.... I was convinced, at the time, that it was the true policy. I am now equally sure that it was a blunder.”

MenYearsImportantWarFeelingsFiveImpossiblePolicyPositionLessonsLaborSlaveSilentConvincedFive YearsHumiliationEmancipationBlundersSuffrageImportant LessonsBest Of MeWoman Suffrage
Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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“It seems certain, that though a man, in a flush of humour, after intense reflection on the many contradictions and imperfections of human reason, may entirely renounce all belief and opinion, it is impossible for him to persevere in this total scepticism, or make it appear in his conduct for a few hours.”

MenHumansMayReasonSeemsCertainBeliefHoursOpinionImpossibleHumourHe ManReflectionIntenseContradictionImperfectionSkepticismPersevereRenounceScepticismHuman Reason
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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“It is an absolute impossibility in this society to reversely sexually objectify heterosexual men, just as it is impossible for a poor person of color to be a racist. Such extreme prejudice must be accompanied by the power of society's approval and legislation. While women and poor people of color may become intolerant, personally abusive, even hateful, they do not have enough power to be racist or sexist.”

PeopleMenMayPersonsEnoughPoorPowerImpossibleColorRacismPrejudiceAbsolutesExtremesRacistSexismApprovalLegislationPoor PeopleImpossibilityHatefulSexuallySexistAbusiveThis Society
Book:Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma
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“Women have a hard time of it in this world. They are oppressed by man-made laws, man-made social customs, masculine egoism, the delusion of masculine superiority. Their one comfort is the assurance that, even though it may be impossible to prevail against man, it is always possible to enslave and torture a man.”

MenWorldMayMadeHardLawSocialWomenImpossibleThis WorldComfortTortureHard TimesDelusionCustomsOppressedSuperiorityAssuranceMasculineEgoism
Book:Mencken Chrestomathy
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“All the different classes of beings which taken together make up the universe are, in the ideas of God who knows distinctly their essential gradations, only so many ordinates of a single curve so closely united that it would be impossible to place others between any two of them, since that would imply disorder and imperfection. Thus men are linked with the animals, these with the plants and these with the fossils which in turn merge with those bodies which our senses and our imagination represent to us as absolutely inanimate.”

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Author:Gottfried Leibniz
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“Most men have a sunny spot to which they look back in their existence, as most have an impossible future, to attain which all their energies are exerted, and their resources employed. The difference between these visionary scenes is this, that they think a good deal of the latter, but talk a good deal of the former.”

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Book:Works
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“Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible. We have entered on a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them, we cannot. If He does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse.”

IfsMenWellsHeartDoeSoulHomeMightSpiritSpeakImpossibleHolyTasksEarsGhostMiserableHoly SpiritBlessSpheresCorpsesHoly Ghost
Author:Steven J Lawson
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“In this glare of brilliant emptiness, in this arid intensity of pure heat, in the heart of a weird solitude, great silence and grand desolution, all things recede to distrances out of reach, relecting light but impossible to touch, annihilating all thought and all that men have made to a spasm of whirling dust far out on the golden desert.”

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Book:Desert solitaire: a season in the wilderness
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“I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose that the Supremely Perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man. More especially, since it is impossible for me to have any positive, clear idea of that which is infinite and incomprehensible, I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it.”

MenDoeIdeasGodFatherReligiousPerfectClearImagineImpossibleWorshipPraiseInfiniteRegardVanity
Book:A Benjamin Franklin Reader
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“That is very fine; but it is impossible to make the men perfect; the men will always remain the same as they are now; and no legislation will make a man have more presence of mind, or, I believe, make him more cautious; and besides that, the next time such an accident occurs, the circumstances will be so different, that the instructions given to the men, in consequence of the former accident, will not apply.”

MenMindBelieveDifferentNextGivenI BelievePerfectImpossibleHe ManFineCircumstancesConsequenceSafetyAccidentsFormerAviationInstructionNext TimeLegislationCautiousPresence Of Mind
Author:Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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“Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.”

MenHappinessJoyWishImpossibleDeterminationHappyInner PeaceBeing HappyPursuit Of HappinessGreat HappinessPeace And HappinessInner HappinessJust Be HappyFeeling HappyMaking People HappyHow To Be HappyHappy ManSelf HappinessWhat Is HappinessLooking For HappinessAttaining HappinessPerfect HappinessMake HappyLive HappyHe Makes Me HappyThey Make Me HappyHappy DispositionHappy With Him
Author:Saint Augustine
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