“Most of us can easily do two things at once; what’s all but impossible is to do one thing at once.”

— Mignon McLaughlin

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

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Mignon McLaughlin 278

American journalist 1913–1983

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Misattributed as Maxim 7, p. 13 https://books.google.com/books?id=GKFGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=%22To+do+two+things+at+once+is+to+do+neither.%22
Variant of:
Duos qui sequitur lepores neutrum capit
Who chases two rabbits catches neither.
A Dictionary of Quotations in most frequent Use, David Evans Macdonnel, 1797, quoted in The Monthly Review, 1798, p. 467 https://books.google.com/books?id=KYhPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA467&dq=%22duos+qui+sequitur+lepores+neutrum+capit%22
Apparently of medieval or modern origin, not found in antiquity.
Misattributed

“There is time enough for everything, in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters

14 April 1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

“It was extraordinary to be in two places at once, doing two different things — extraordinary, but not confusing.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Let's Be Frank (1957)
Context: It was extraordinary to be in two places at once, doing two different things — extraordinary, but not confusing. He merely had two bodies which were as integrated as his two hands had been.

“I can tell you that once upon a time when I was doing public events people would ask me, "What do you think about the arts?, What do you think of the role of women?, What do you think of men?, What do you think of all of these things?", and now they ask one thing, and that one thing is this, "Is there hope?"”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Turning Pages: The Life and Literature of Margaret Atwood (2007)

“The last thing I would say is that you can achieve a lot of things in politics and get a lot of things done; in the end, public service and the national interest is what it is all about. Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said, I was the future once.”

David Cameron (1966) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Last statement to the House of Commons as Prime Minister, ending by paraphrasing his 2005 comment to Tony Blair, "he was the future once" (July 13, 2016), see Hansard https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-07-13/debates/4A1B874C-54B5-4BEF-8D79-AFA264A78068/Engagements#contribution-E7A04179-9154-4077-87DF-1642C1BD3B4D
2010s, 2016