Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do but nearly every one who tries his power touches the walls of his being occasionally, and learns about how far to attempt to spring.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
You can have it all. You just can’t have it all at once.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
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
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
Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call fourth. … Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. … Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives fare within his limits he possesses powers of various sorts he habitually fails to use.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
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
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
You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations in what you can do except the limitations of your own mind.
—Darwin P. Kingsley (1857–1932) American Insurance Executive
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
We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
It shows exactly what you can do if you’re a total psychotic.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
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
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it half an hour a day. Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Anglican Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
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
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
Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Wonder if there is life on another planet? Let’s suppose there is. Suppose further, that only one star in a trillion has a planet that could support life. If that were the case, then there would be at least 100 million planets that harbored life.
—Ben Sweetland
If you only look at what is, you might never attain what could be.
—Unknown
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
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
—Walt Disney (1901–66) American Entrepreneur
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
Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
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
The only service that you can render God is to give expression to what he is trying to give to the world, through you. The only service you can render God is to make the very most of yourself in order that God may live in you to the utmost of your possibilities.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
So many worlds, so much to do,
So little done, such things to be.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Two people can do anything as long as one of them is the Lord.
—Indian Proverb
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author