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Impossible Quotes

“The notion that a society could be regulated entirely by market forces is a utopian fantasy: an impossible dream generated by imagining what the world would be like if everyone's behavior was utterly consistent with some abstract moral ideal-in this case, economic theories that assume all human action is based on calculating, systematic, (but scrupulously law-abiding), greed.”

IfsWorldHumansDreamWould BeActionLawForceMoralCasesFantasyImpossibleEconomicTheoryBehaviorIdealsAssumingNotionGreedLibertarianAbstractConsistentAbidingSystematicUtopianCalculatingHuman ActionsEconomic TheoryImpossible Dream
Author:David Graeber
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“Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and intertwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally, I do not mean figuratively, but literally impossible for us to figure what the loss would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves.”

IfsThinkingMenMeanWholeWould BeSocialRealizingLosesLossMoralImpossibleTeachingFiguresJudgingStandardsRaisesStrivePresidentialResolutionCivicsSocial LifeIntertwinedThinking Man
Author:Theodore Roosevelt
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“It is almost impossible to translate verbally and well at the same time; for the Latin (a most severe and compendious language) often expresses that in one word which either the barbarity or the narrowness of modern tongues cannot supply in more. ...But since every language is so full of its own proprieties that what is beautiful in one is often barbarous, nay, sometimes nonsense, in another, it would be unreasonable to limit a translator to the narrow compass of his author's words; it is enough if he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense.”

IfsWellsDoeSometimesEnoughWould BeBeautifulLanguageImpossibleModernExpressionLimitsTongueNonsenseLatinTranslateSevereCompassOne WordUnreasonableProprietyTranslatorsBarbarity
Author:John Dryden
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“If Jesus is Lord then the only right response to him is surrender and obedience. He is Savior and he is Lord. We cannot separate his demands from his love. We cannot dissect Jesus and relate only to the parts that we like or need. Christ died so that we could be forgiven for managing our own lives. It would be impossible to thank Christ for dying and yet to continue running our own lives.”

IfsNeedsWould BeRunningJesusChristChristianityLordImpossibleDyingDemandDiedResponseSurrenderChristian LifeRelateObedienceSaviorForgivenHis Love
Author:Rebecca Pippert
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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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“In conscious life, we achieve some sense of ourselves as reasonably unified, coherent selves, and without this action would be impossible. But all this is merely at the 'imaginary' level of the ego, which is no more than the tip of the iceberg of the human subject known to psychoanalysis. The ego is function or effect of a subject which is always dispersed, never identical with itself, strung out along the chains of the discourses which constitute it.”

HumansSelfWould BeActionLevelsKnownImpossibleAchieveSubjectsEffectsEgoConsciousFunctionChainsImaginaryDiscourseIdenticalPsychoanalysisUnifiedIcebergTip Of The Iceberg
Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction
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“What would happen if history could be rewritten as casually as erasing a blackboard? Our past would be like the shifting sands at the seashore, constantly blown this way or that by the slightest breeze. History would be constantly changing every time someone spun the dial of a time machine and blundered his or her way into the past. History, as we know it, would be impossible. It would cease to exist.”

IfsKnowsWayHappensWould BePastImpossibleMachinesCeaseSandOur PastBreezeShiftingSpunTime MachineSeashoreBlackboardShifting Sand
Book:Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension
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“Such expression is impossible in a cramped atmosphere. As I have no desire to offer civil disobedience I cannot write freely. As the author of satyagraha I cannot, consistently with my profession, suppress the vital part of myself for the sake of being able to write on permissible subjects. ... It would be like dealing with the trunk without the head.”

WritingWould BeAbleDesireImpossibleAtheismSubjectsExpressionOffersSakePositive AtheismProfessionAtmosphereConsistentlyDisobedienceCivil DisobedienceTrunksSatyagraha
Book:Satyagraha: Non-violent Resistance
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“One of the most gracious dispensations of God concerning His saints is their lovely unawareness of sanctity. The nearer they move to Him, the more conscious are they of sin. If it were impossible at times not to note their own growth in grace, it were impossible also to forget that it was all by His power. If they could be persuaded to admit their progress and talk of it at all, the language of their heart would be this: 'If God could do this in me, He could do it in anyone”

IfsHeartWould BeMovingLanguageGrowthSinForgetGraceProgressImpossibleConsciousNotesSaintLovelyGraciousSanctityUnawareness
Author:Bill Vaughan
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“These missiles [Cruise and Pershing II] represent a new generation of missiles whose deployment will help give NATO first-strike capability. With this first-strike strategy, the West believes it could attack Russian military installations with such effectiveness that serious retaliation would be impossible.”

GivingFirstsBelieveWarHelpingWould BePeaceImpossibleGenerationsMilitarySeriousStrategyWestStrikesCapabilityEffectivenessMissilesNew GenerationNatoCruiseDeploymentRetaliationInstallationRussian Military
Author:Petra Kelly
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“Gun-free zones don't deter criminals-they help them by providing a guarantee that they will not face any armed resistance. But they do deter the law-abiding. A faculty member with a concealed-handgun permit who breaks the campus gun ban would be fired and likely find it impossible to get admitted to another school. Bringing a firearm into a gun-free zone can have serious adverse consequences for law-abiding people. But for someone like the Virginia Tech killer, the threat of expulsion is no deterrent at all.”

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Book:Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns
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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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“I do not deny God, because that word conveys to me no idea, and I cannot deny that which presents to me no distinct affirmation, and of which the would-be affirmer has no conception. I cannot war with a nonentity. If, however, God is affirmed to represent an existence which is distinct from the existence of which I am a mode, and which it is alleged is not the noumenon of which the word I represents only a speciality of phenomena, then I deny God, and affirm that it is impossible God can be.”

IfsIdeasWarWould BeExistenceImpossibleAtheismDenyPositive AtheismNo IdeaConceptionAffirmationBeing PositiveNonentity
Book:A Few Words About the Devil: And Other Biographical Sketches and Essays
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“... it would be impossible for women to stand in higher estimation than they do here. The deference that is paid to them at all times and in all places has often occasioned me as much surprise as pleasure.”

Would BePleasureImpossibleHigherPaidSurpriseAll TimeEstimationDeference
Book:Views of society and manners in America: in a series of letters from that country to a friend in England, during the years 1818, 1819, and 1820
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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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“It is manifest therefore that they who have sovereign power, are immediate rulers of the church under Christ, and all others but subordinate to them. If that were not, but kings should command one thing upon pain of death, and priests another upon pain of damnation, it would be impossible that peace and religion should stand together.”

IfsShouldGovernmentWould BePainTogetherReligionChristChurchImpossibleOne ThingKingsSeparationCommandPriestsManifestRulersSovereignChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateSubordinatesDamnation
Book:The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic: Part I, Human Nature, Part II, De Corpore Politico ; with Three Lives
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“If I could get any semblance of, not really anonymity, but control over my public image, that would be nice. But no, I think it's impossible [to maintain that], for one thing. I don't think anyone can do that, apart from Denzel Washington. It's a strange place that the film industry is at, where you can just play superhero after superhero.”

IfsThinkingPlayWould BeFilmCan DoNiceImpossibleOne ThingStrangeIndustryIf I CouldBeing NiceSuperheroAnonymityFilm IndustrySemblanceStrange PlacesDenzelPublic Image
Author:Robert Pattinson
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“The universe shows us the life of God, or rather it is in itself the life of God. We behold in it his permanent action, the scene upon which his power is exercised, and in which all his attributes are reflected. God is not out of the universe any more than the universe is out of God. God is the principle, the universe is the consequence, but a necessary consequence, without which the principle would be inert, unfruitful, impossible to conceive.”

ShowsWould BeActionUniversePrinciplesImpossibleSceneConsequencePermanentAttributes
Author:Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire
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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.”

KnowsMenTwoIdeasDifferentBodyWould BeTogetherTurnsUniverseImaginationAnimalUnitedClassTakenImpossibleEssentialsPlantSensesDisorderImperfectionLinkedCurvesFossils
Author:Gottfried Leibniz
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