
“The word impossible is not French.”
Le mot impossible n'est pas français.
Letter to General Jean Le Marois (9 July 1813), quoted in Famous Sayings and their Authors (1906) by Edward Latham, p. 138
Variant translation: You write to me that it is impossible; the word is not French.
Variant attribution: Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.
The letter says: "Ce n'est pas possible", m'ecrivez-vous: cela n'est pas français. Original Source http://books.google.es/books?id=TqvSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA479&dq=correspondance+napoleon+Ier+9+juillet+1813&hl=es&ei=tT3ATqzaNImu8gP01dH9Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false