“It is impossible to do anything for anyone.”

Source: All Men are Mortal (1946), p. 317

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is impossible to do anything for anyone." by Simone de Beauvoir?
Simone de Beauvoir photo
Simone de Beauvoir 152
French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, po… 1908–1986

Related quotes

Noam Chomsky photo

“Within our ideological system, it is impossible to perceive that anyone might criticize anything but "mistakes"”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, 1992
Context: I never criticized United States planners for mistakes in Vietnam. True, they made some mistakes, but my criticism was always aimed at what they aimed to do and largely achieved. The Russians doubtless made mistakes in Afghanistan, but my condemnation of their aggression and atrocities never mentioned those mistakes, which are irrelevant to the matter -- though not for the commissars. Within our ideological system, it is impossible to perceive that anyone might criticize anything but "mistakes" (I suspect that totalitarian Russia was more open in that regard).

“My motto is very personal and may not fit anyone else or any other company. It is: Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.”

Edwin H. Land (1909–1991) American scientist and inventor

As quoted in "The Vindication of Edwin Land" in Forbes magazine, Vol. 139 (4 May 1987) p. 83; this was later humorously altered:
Don't do anything that someone else can do. Don't undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Edwin Ladd, Department of Astronomy, Harvard University (August, 1990), as quoted by Lincoln J. Greenhill at Harvard University http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~lincoln/

Marcus Aurelius photo

“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

Source: The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Baruch Spinoza photo

“In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible ; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Source: Political Treatise (1677), Ch. 2, Of Natural Right
Context: In the state of nature, wrong-doing is impossible; or, if anyone does wrong, it is to himself, not to another. For no one by the law of nature is bound to please another, unless he chooses, nor to hold anything to be good or evil, but what he himself, according to his own temperament, pronounces to be so; and, to speak generally, nothing is forbidden by the law of nature, except what is beyond everyone's power.<!-- 23

Tyler Joseph photo

“Anyone from anywhere can do anything.”

Tyler Joseph (1988) American singer-songwriter and record producer
Richard Bach photo

“Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

Abraham Lincoln photo
Joel Osteen photo
Frédéric Bazille photo

“I do hope, that if I ever do anything, at least to have the merit of not copying anyone.”

Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870) French painter

Quote in Bazille's letter to his father, 1864; as cited in: article: Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism, Corrinne Chong, PhD -independent scholar http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn17/chong-reviews-frederic-bazille-and-the-birth-of-impressionism
1861 - 1865

Harold W. Percival photo

“For you it is possible to do anything; the only thing impossible for you to do is to do wrong, inasmuch as you are knowledge and justice and love.”

Source: Thinking and Destiny (1946), Ch. 14, Thinking: The Way to Conscious Immortality, p. 943

Related topics