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Unattainable Quotes

Browse 180 quotes about Unattainable.

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Unattainable Quotes

“Anna loves Ted, but she does not want him in a way that causes her to suffer; she does not want him desperately, despite herself. And it turns out that is how Ted has always wanted to be wanted: the way he has always wanted women. The way Anna wanted Marco, and he wanted Anna, and Rachel (or so it seems, in retrospect) wanted him. In the absence of this painful wanting, Ted has trouble getting hard.”

DesireSufferingPainfulUnrequited LoveUnattainableWantingLove TriangleKristen RoupenianYou Know You Want ThisVicious Cycle
Book:You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
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“In general I lacked principally the ability to provide even in the slightest detail for the real future. I thought only of things in the present and their present condition, not because of thoroughness or any special, strong interest, but rather, to the extent that weakness in thinking was not the cause, because of sorrow and fear – sorrow, because the present was so sad for me that I thought I could not leave it before it resolved itself into happiness; fear, because, like my fear of the slightest action in the present, I also considered myself, in view of my contemptible, childish appearance, unworthy of forming a serious, responsible opinion of the great, manly future which usually seemed so impossible to me that every short step forward appeared to me to be counterfeit and the next step unattainable.”

FearImpossibleSorrowFutureUnworthyUnattainableCounterfeitContemptible
Book:Diaries, 1910-1923
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“Inventory: "Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things I'd been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne. Three be the things I shall have till I die: Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.”

LoveLifeWisdomValuesHopeKnowledgeDoubtFriendsSorrowLaughterCuriosityEnvyContentmentIdlenessChampagneUnattainableInventoryFoesSuperfluitySufficienty
Book:The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker
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“Ignorance of the law of irreducibility was no excuse. I could no longer excuse myself with the claim that I didn't know the law -- for knowledge of self and of the world is the law that, even though unattainable, cannot be broken, and no one can excuse himself by saying that he doesn't know it. . . . The renewed originality of the sin is this: I have to carry out my unknowing, I shall be sinning originally against life.”

KnowsWorldSelfLawSinIgnoranceBrokenClaimsExcuseOriginalitySelf KnowledgeNo ExcusesUnattainableSinningUnknowingIgnorance Of The Law
Author:Clarice Lispector
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“If you want to know what true art is: Go outside on a clear night, wait until it gets very, very dark, then look up! You will see no rules of composition, no evidence of superior technique. Yet, you will be staring into the very face of pure, unadulterated beauty and wonder. That is the unattainable Ideal for which I must constantly strive.”

IfsKnowsWantLooksArtFacesNightWaitingDarkWonderClearPureArt IsEvidenceIdealsStriveTechniqueSuperiorsStaringLook UpCompositionUnattainable
Author:Derek R. Audette
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“In man's life, the absence of an essential component usually leads to the adoption of a substitute. The substitute is usually embraced with vehemence and extremism, for we have to convince ourselves that what we took as second choice is the best there ever was. Thus blind faith is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves; insatiable desire a substitute for hope; accumulation a substitute for growth; fervent hustling a substitute for purposeful action; and pride a substitute for an unattainable self-respect.”

MenSelfActionDesireChoicesLostGrowthPrideEssentialsBlindAbsenceSelf RespectConvinceSubstitutesAdoptionComponentsAccumulationExtremismHustleInsatiableBlind FaithUnattainableFerventLost FaithVehemenceSecond Choice
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“Perfectionism is self-destructive simply because there is no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal. Additionally, perfectionism is more about perception - we want to be perceived as perfect. Again, this is unattainable - there is no way to control perception, regardless of how much time and energy we spend trying.”

WayWantTryingSelfMotivationalEnergyGoalPerfectPerceptionPerfectionDestructivePerfectionismUnattainableTime And EnergySelf Destructive
Author:Brené Brown
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“Forgotten tones of love recur to us, and kind glances shine out of the past--oh so bright and clear!--oh so longed after!--because they are out of reach; as holiday music from within a prison wall--or sunshine seen through the bars; more prized because unattainable--more bright because of the contrast of present darkness and solitude, whence there is no escape.”

LoveKindPastDarknessClearWallSolitudePrisonShiningForgottenBarsToneHolidaySunshineContrastGlancesUnattainablePrison Walls
Book:The works of William Makepeace Thackeray
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“Dynamic ecstasy is absolute romanticism , absolute heroism . And here I return to my point. From my point of view, after the catastrophe which we feel and think is universal, a catastrophe resulting from an excess of useless dynamism of useless progress, of useless realism, of useless technology, after this an unattainable democracy is to be reached through the conception and realization of a new romanticism.”

ThinkingFeelsViewsTechnologyDemocracyProgressReturnUniversalAbsolutesPoint Of ViewRealizationUselessConceptionEcstasyExcessHeroismRealismCatastropheRomanticismUnattainableDynamism
Author:Juan Ramon Jimenez
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“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”

GoalTeachTeacherImpossibleTeachingToolsTasksMiracleAppreciationAccomplishExpectedTortureSetting GoalsInadequateGreat TeacherGood TeacherBest TeacherUnattainableTeaching ChildrenTeaching And EducationTeachers And TeachingTeaching EducationInspirational TeacherGreat TeachingBeing A TeacherGood TeachingTeacher AppreciationThanking TeachersThank You TeacherTeacher MotivationalTeacher Appreciation DayNew Teachers
Author:Haim Ginott
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“Books are surviving in this intense, fragmented, hyper-accelerated present, and my sense and hope is that things will slow down again and people will want more time for a contemplative life. There is no way people can keep up this pace. No one is happy. Two or three hours to read should not be an unattainable thing, although I hope we get to that stage without needing a corporate sponsored app to hold our hand. The utopian in me has my fingers crossed that we haven't quite figured out the digital future just yet. After all, the one thing we know about people: they always surprise.”

PeopleKnowsWayWantShouldTwoBookHandsThreeHoursOne ThingStageHavensSurpriseFingersIntenseCorporateDigitalMore TimePaceSlow DownSurvivingUtopianContemplativeUnattainableAppsHyperFragmentedContemplative LifeFingers Crossed
Author:Junot Diaz
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“Spirituality is best manifested on the ground, not in the air. Rapturous day-dreams, flights of heavenly fancy, longings to see the Invisible, are less expensive and less expressive than the plain doing of duty. To have bread excite thankfulness and a drink of water send the heart to God is better than sighs for the unattainable. To plow a straight furrow on Monday or dust a room well on Tuesday or kiss a bumped forehead on Wednesday is worth more than the most ecstatic thrill under Sunday eloquence. Spirituality is seeing God in common things, and showing God in common tasks.”

WellsHeartDreamSpiritualityWaterRoomsCommonSeeingAirDutyDrinkKissingTasksLongingInvisibleBreadFlightDustFancyExpensiveHeavenlySundayThrillSighMondayThankfulnessEloquenceForeheadsEcstaticTuesdayExpressiveWednesdayUnattainableCommon Things
Book:Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock
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“A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs-especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past-are incitements to reverie. The sense of the unattainable that can be evoked by photographs feeds directly into the erotic feelings of those for whom desirability is enhanced by distance.”

PeopleFeelingsPastRoomsCitiesFireDistancePhotographWoodsAbsenceLandscapeEroticTokensUnattainablePseudoReverieDesirabilityIncitement
Book:On photography
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“You yourself create all your misery, hour after hour, day after day. You think the goal justifies the means, even the vile means. You are wrong: The goal is in the path on which you arrive at it. Every step of today is your life of tomorrow. No great goal can be reached by vile means. That you have proven in every social revolution. The vileness or inhumanity of the path to the goal makes you vile or inhuman, and the goal unattainable.”

ThinkingMeanTodaySocialGoalHoursStepsPathRevolutionTomorrowMiseryJustifyProvenEvery StepInhumanInhumanityUnattainableSocial RevolutionAfter Hours
Author:Wilhelm Reich
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“The crude commercialism of America, its materialising spirit, its indifference to the poetical side of things, and its lack of imagination and of high unattainable ideals, are entirely due to that country having adopted for its national hero a man who, according to his own confession, was incapable of telling a lie, and it is not too much to say that the story of George Washington and the cherry-tree has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.”

MenCountryDoneWholeStoriesAmericaSpiritLyingLiteratureSidesImaginationSpaceMoralToo MuchTreeHeroIdealsDuesHarmTalesIndifferenceConfessionIncapableAdoptedCrudeCherriesUnattainableCommercialismCherry Trees
Book:The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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“In our minds lives the madonna image--the all-embracing, all- giving tranquil mother of a Raphael painting, one child at her breast, another at her feet; a woman fulfilled, one who asks nothing more than to nurture and nourish. This creature of fantasy, this myth, is the model--the unattainable ideal against which women measure, not only their performance, but their feelings about being mothers.”

GivingMindChildrenFeelingsMotherAsksFantasyFeetPaintingCreaturesModelsIdealsPerformancesMythBreastsFulfilledNurtureTranquilBeing A MotherUnattainableRaphael
Author:Lillian B. Rubin
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