We must learn our limits. We are all something but none of us are everything.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
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
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
The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Biographer, Critic, Short Story Writer
Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
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
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
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
It is not a dreamlike state, but the somehow insulated state, that a great musician achieves in a great performance. He’s aware of where he is and what he’s doing, but his mind is on the playing of his instrument with an internal sense of rightness—it is not merely mechanical, it is not only spiritual; it is something of both, on a different plane and a more remote one.
—Arnold Palmer (b.1929) American Sportsperson
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
The possibilities of creative effort connected with the subconscious mind are stupendous and imponderable. They inspire one with awe.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
I cannot discover that anyone knows enough to say definitely what is and what is not possible.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
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
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
Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
Man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out of the impossible.
—Max Weber (1864–1920) German Sociologist
Of course we all have our limits, but how can you possibly find your boundaries unless you explore as far and as wide as you possibly can? I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done.
—A. E. Hotchner (1917–2020) American Author, Playwright
I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely anything is possible. And from that moment, my life changed.
—Shirley MacLaine (b.1934) American Actor, Dancer, Author, Activist
It is impossible to underrate human intelligence—beginning with one’s own.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
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 we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
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
The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.
—Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English Novelist, Scriptwriter
So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
You never know what you can do until you try.
—Unknown
Oh who can tell the range of joy or set the bounds of beauty?
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked up on as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Believing in fate produces fate. Believing in freedom will create infinite possibilities.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
I dwell in Possibility.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
—Les Brown
Look at things… as they can be.
—David J. Schwartz (1927–87) American Self-help Author
Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end.
—Anonymous
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
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible—and achieve it, generation after generation.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
As you begin to understand the immense power and love you hold inside, you will find an unending surge of joy, light and love that will nourish and support you all the days of your life.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
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
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer
It’s your unlimited power to care and to love that can make the biggest difference in the quality of your life.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
The only way to discover the limits of the possible
is to go beyond them to the impossible.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer
So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Civil Regrets Advocate, Humanitarian, Lawyer
If you use these principles wisely and intelligently, there can be no uncertainty as to the outcome of any endeavor, and no limit to your possibilities.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
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
Anything that has been accomplished by any other human being in the physical realm is within the field of possibility.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American Novelist
Impossible situations can become possible miracles.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author