“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”
(Leslie T. Lyall. A Passion for the Impossible: The Continuing Story of the Mission Hudson Taylor Began. London: OMF Books, 1965, 5).
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James Hudson Taylor 88
Missionary in China 1832–1905Related quotes

“Every noble work is at first impossible.”
From Past and Present (1843), Chapter XI : Labour
The Wikipedia page for Thomas Carlyle has links to the Project Gutenberg version of this book
1840s

Source: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

As quoted in A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991) edited by Alan L. Mackay, ( p. 2 http://books.google.com/books?id=KwESE88CGa8C&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=every+scientific+truth+goes+through+three+stages+first+people+say+it+conflicts+with+the+bible+next+they+say+it+had+been+discovered+before+lastly+they+say+they+always+believed+in+it&source=web&ots=DKSjGVklFG&sig=TGpJ6LSI9CE4s7Nu8wUiGAq3rgI)

Source: 1930s, Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 1: The Impulse to Power


“Every institution goes through three stages — utility, privilege, and abuse.”
As quoted in Culture and Progress (1930) by Wilson Dallam Wallis.