Diana Gabaldon quote: “As though, knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”

“Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order

“… though nothing is damaged, everything is changed.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.”

Margaret Drabble (1939) Novelist, biographer and critic

“Of Optimism I have said that "The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil."”

F. H. Bradley book Appearance and Reality

Appearance and Reality, preface http://books.google.com/books?id=EtgtAAAAYAAJ&q=%22of+optimism+I+have+said+that+The+world+is+the+best+of+all+possible+worlds+and+everything+in+it+is+a+necessary+evil%22&pg=PR14#v=onepage (1893).

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

As quoted in Journal of France and Germany (1942–1944) by Gilbert Fowler White, in excerpt published in Living with Nature's Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White (2006) by Robert E. Hinshaw, p. 62. From the context http://books.google.com/books?id=_2qfZRp9SeEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false it seems that White did not specify whether he had heard Einstein himself say this or whether he was repeating a quote that had been passed along by someone else, so without a primary source the validity of this quote should be considered questionable. Some have argued that elsewhere Einstein defined a "miracle" as a type of event he did not believe was possible—Einstein on Religion by Max Jammer (1999) quotes on p. 89 from a 1931 conversation Einstein had with David Reichinstein, where Reichinstein brought up philosopher Arthur Liebert's argument that the indeterminism of quantum mechanics might allow for the possibility of miracles, and Einstein replied that Liebert's argument dealt "with a domain in which lawful rationality [determinism] does not exist. A 'miracle,' however, is an exception from lawfulness; hence, there where lawfulness does not exist, also its exception, i.e., a miracle, cannot exist." ("Dort, wo eine Gesetzmässigkeit nicht vorhanden ist, kann auch ihre Ausnahme, d.h. ein Wunder, nicht existieren." D. Reichenstein, Die Religion der Gebildeten (1941), p. 21). However, it is clear from the context that Einstein was stating only that miracles cannot exist in a domain (quantum mechanics) where lawful rationality does not exist. He did not claim that miracles could never exist in any domain. Indeed, Einstein clearly believed, as seen in many quotations above, that the universe was comprehensible and rational, but he also described this characteristic of the universe as a "miracle". In another example, he is quoted as claiming belief in a God, "Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world." As quoted in From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter (1993) by David T. Dellinger, p. 418 Disputed Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Variant: There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

“And suddenly everything, absolutely everything, was there.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine

“A significant idea of organization cannot be obtained in a world in which everything is necessary and nothing is contingent”

Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) American mathematician

Source: I am a mathematician, the later life of a prodigy (1953), p. 322; Cited in: Walter F. Buckley (1967) Sociology and modern systems theory. p. 82