Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
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
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
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Only the person of worth can recognize the worth in others.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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 am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) American Journalist, Educator, Author
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
A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such speed. It feels an impulsion … this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond the horizons.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Writer, Aviator
Independent of others and in concert with others, your main task in life is to do what you can best do and become what you can potentially be.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
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, Social Critic
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
There is no man living who isn’t capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.
—Henry Ford (1863–1947) American Businessperson, Engineer
When you know what men are capable of you marvel neither at their sublimity nor their baseness. There are no limits in either direction apparently.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Say no to the drug of gradualness. It was Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke out strongly against making slow changes. Either we risk or we don’t, he said. Either we change or we don’t. There’s no acceptable middle ground because it lulls us into complacency. Lasting changes rarely occur when we ease our way into the future. They come when we leap. The leap themselves can be small or large. Once we take action, we see things differently and for many of us there’s no going back.
—Robert K. Cooper (b.1957) American Author, Psychologist
Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which shirking pain, misses happiness as well. No one ever yet was the poorer in the long run for having once in a lifetime “let out all the length of all the reins.”
—Mary Cholmondeley (1859–1925) British Victorian Novelist
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
I dwell in Possibility
A fairer House than Prose
More numerous of Windows
Superior—for Doors
Of Chambers as the Cedars
Impregnable of Eye
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky
Of Visitors—the fairest
For Occupation—This
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
It’s easy to act as if you are a weathervane, always changing your beliefs and words, trying to please everyone around you. But we were born to be lighthouses, not weathervanes. Imagine a vertical axis running through the center of your heart, from your deepest roots to your highest aspirations. That’s your lighthouse. It anchors you in the world and frees you from having to change directions every time the weather shifts. Inside this lighthouse there is a lens and a light. The light represents who you are when nobody else is looking. That light was meant to keep shining, no matter how dark or stormy it gets outside…when you find that light inside you, you will know it. Don’t let anyone else dim it…and one more thing: remember to look for the light inside others. If at first you can’t see it, look deeper. It’s there.
—Robert K. Cooper (b.1957) American Author, Psychologist
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 (1579–1625) English Playwright
Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.
—Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–97) English Royal, Humanitarian, Peace Activist
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
The ultimate creative capacity of the brain may be, for all practical purposes, infinite.
—George Leonard (1923–2010) American Editor, Aikidoist, Pioneer
Promise is the capacity for letting people down.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
When a man has put a limit on what he will do, he has put a limit on what he can do.
—Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) American Businessperson
I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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