“All that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.”
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Kathleen Norris 11
American writer 1880–1966Related quotes
G 4
Variant translations:
It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard.
It is virtually impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd, without singeing someone's beard
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
Context: I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility. It's controlled by someone they call "God" who never had a beginning and naturally had no end. And in a sense He doesn't exist, because of the standards of reality, because everybody knows something can't just happen — but if there is a God, that's what happened; just happened to be, and without ever having not been — they got to face that.
“…it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.”
'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.In the Cathedral
Source: The Trial (1920), Chapter 9
As quoted in "The best quotes from Ralph Klein’s colourful public life" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-best-quotes-from-ralph-kleins-colourful-public-life/article10577310/, The Globe and Mail
p. 95
Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
As quoted in Erdogan: "Democracy in the Middle East, PluralIism in Europe: Turkish View" http://www.turkishweekly.net/article/8/erdogan-democracy-in-the-middle-east-pluraliism-in-europe-turkish-view-.html, The Turkish Weekly (October 12, 2004)
“To overcome the fear of death it is necessary to accept that we all have to die”
Silence Speaks, from the chalkboard of Baba Hari Dass, 1977
Context: Q: What can I do to overcome my fear of death? A: Attachment to the body causes fear of death. It is the strongest attachment. Even a newborn infant has this attachment. To overcome the fear of death it is necessary to accept that we all have to die. (p.39)