Alleged “impossibilities” are opportunities for our capacities to be stretched.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are. You are capable of doing and becoming more than you might imagine.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Believing in fate produces fate. Believing in freedom will create infinite possibilities.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
The Gleam of an heroic act,
Such strange illumination—
The Possible’s slow fuse it lit
By the Imagination.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
No one knows what he can do till he tries.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Oh who can tell the range of joy or set the bounds of beauty?
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end.
—Anonymous
She didn’t know it couldn’t be done, so she went ahead and did it.
—Unknown
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
—Walt Disney (1901–66) American Entrepreneur
Whenever two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited. You can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to be. You can set large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively toward their realization. There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the obstacles that you create in your mind.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
Thou hast seen nothing yet.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been.
—Sam Walton (1918–92) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Look and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
Today Americans are overcome not by the sense of endless possibility but by the banality of the social order they have erected against it.
—Christopher Lasch (1932–94) American Historian, Moralist, Social Critic
A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Go far—too far you cannot, still the farther. The more experience finds you: and go sparing. One meal a week will serve you, and one suit, Through all your travels; for you’ll find it certain. The poorer and the baser you appear, The more you look through still.
—John Fletcher
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities—always see them, for they’re always there.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We must dare to think ‘unthinkable’ thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Political leader, Politician
It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
It is idleness that creates impossibilities; and where people don’t care to do anything, they shelter themselves under a permission that it cannot be done.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
It shows exactly what you can do if you’re a total psychotic.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
There are no limits to your possibilities! Your successes will multiply and increase in proportion to your mastery of the law.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
Impossible situations can become possible miracles.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Financier, Philanthropist, Art Collector
We must learn our limits. We are all something but none of us are everything.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
The riches of life, the love and joy and exhilaration of life can be found only with an upward look. This is an exciting world. It’s cram-packed with opportunity. Great moments wait around every corner.
—Richard DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist
I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
Everyone’s got it in him, if he’ll only make up his mind and stick at it. None of us is born with a stop-valve on his powers or with a set limit to his capacities, There’s no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us.
—Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) American Businessperson
Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines; man can grow as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power which is or has been shown by any person anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
I’ve discovered I’ve got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces.
—Steven Spielberg (b.1946) American Film Director, Screenwriter, Film Producer, Businessperson
The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, “Thus far and no farther.”
—Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Composer, Musician
There are no such things as incurable, there are only things for which man has not found a cure.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
—Shunryu Suzuki (1904–71) Zen Buddhist Monk, Author
I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) Russian-born American Journalist
Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
As you start to see the possibilities in the impossible, you will begin to see that the world works “perfectly”. You can find reason and purpose in everything—if you open your mind to it.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The failure wishes he could do things he could never do. He thinks little of what he can do.
—Mark Caine
If I had some idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?
—Richard DeVos (1926–2018) American Businessman, Philanthropist