“I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach.”

—  Ayn Rand , book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach." by Ayn Rand?
Ayn Rand photo
Ayn Rand 322
Russian-American novelist and philosopher 1905–1982

Related quotes

Elizabeth Cady Stanton photo
Rumi photo
James Frey photo
Alex Morgan photo

“Before I got pregnant, my mindset was like, it’s possible that I’ll never reach my potential again.”

Alex Morgan (1989) American soccer player

"The Advice Alex Morgan Would Give Her Daughter About Getting Into Sports" https://www.romper.com/life/alex-morgan-olympics-daughter-interview (July 10, 2021)

Joseph Heller photo

“He could never decide whether to furgle them or photograph them, for he had found it impossible to do both simultaneously.”

Source: Catch-22 (1961), pp.53-54. Dell 1962 edition. (First use of "furgle" in the United States.)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“I couldn't tell you how happy I feel to have taken up drawing again. It had already been on my mind for a long time, but I always saw the thing as impossible and beyond my reach”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

In his letter to Theo, from Cuesmes, 24 September 1880 - original manuscript of letter no. 158 - at Van Gogh Museum, location Amsterdam - inv. no. b156 V/1962, http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let158/letter.html
Van Gogh's copies (drawings) he made after the work of Rousseau have been lost
1880s, 1880
Context: First and foremost, the masterly etching, 'The bush', by Daubigny/Ruisdael. [ Daubigny's etching 'The bush', he made after Jacob van Ruisdael ].... I plan to do two drawings, either in sepia or something else, one of them after this etching [by Daubigny] — the other [etching, made] after T. Rousseau's 'The oven in Les Landes'. This latter sepia is already done — it's true — but if you compare it with Daubigny's etching, you'll understand that it becomes weak, even though the sepia drawing considered on its own may very well have a certain tone and sentiment. I have to go back to it and work on it again.... I couldn't tell you how happy I feel to have taken up drawing again. It had already been on my mind for a long time, but I always saw the thing as impossible and beyond my reach.

George Orwell photo
James Stephens photo

“I would think
Until I found
Something
I can never find;
– Something
Lying
On the ground,
In the bottom
Of my mind.”

James Stephens (1882–1950) Irish writer

"The Goat Paths", line 89, in Collected Poems (London: Macmillan, 1954) p. 6.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette photo

“I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.”

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) French general and politician

As quoted in a letter by Thomas Clarkson (3 October 1845), published in The Liberty Bell (1846), p. 64

Related topics