“How can I pray for you," she said, "when I am forbidden to believe that the great Power who moves the world would alter His plans on my account?”
phase the Sixth: The Convert, ch. XLVI
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
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Thomas Hardy 171
English novelist and poet 1840–1928Related quotes

“I am a great believer that anything not expressly forbidden is explicitly allowed.”
Source: Clariel

Heart-to-Heart Talks with Philistines by the Pastor of His Flock http://books.google.com/books?id=4k8LAQAAIAAJ&q=%22we+are+moving+so+fast+that+when+plans+are+being+made+to+perform+some+great+feat+these+plans+are+broken+into+by+a+youth+who+enters+and+says+I+have+done+it%22&pg=PA178#v=onepage, The Philistine magazine, May 1913
As quoted in The Treasury of Humorous Quotations (1951) by Evan Esar, p. 103
As quoted in More Random Walks In Science : An Anthology (1982) by Robert L. Weber, p. 109.
Variant: The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
Variant: In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done is quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it.

Republican debate http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/10/last-nights-gop-debate-transcript.html 2011-10-18
2010s
“How do you know when you're God?" "When I pray to him I find I am talking to myself.”
Source: The Ruling Class: A Baroque Comedy