“The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”

Hercule Poirot
Source: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

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 "The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances." by Agatha Christie?
Agatha Christie photo
Agatha Christie 320
English mystery and detective writer 1890–1976

Related quotes

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Possible impossibility emerges from an impossible possibility, or possibly, impossible possibility blooms from the impossibly possible impossibility.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Possibility http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/possibility-3/
From the poems written in English

Sri Aurobindo photo

“What I cannot do now is the sign of what I shall do hereafter. The sense of impossibility is the beginning of all possibilities. Because this temporal universe was a paradox and an impossibility, therefore the Eternal created it out of His being.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Glimpses (1916-17)
Thoughts and Glimpses (1916-17)

Ali Gomaa photo

“Ali Gum'a: There must be four witnesses to testify against the adulterer. They must testify that they saw them having sex.
Interviewer: In other words, that is impossible.
Ali Gum'a: Exactly. This cannot happen unless someone is weary of living and decides to confess.”

Ali Gomaa (1951) Egyptian imam

Mufti of Egypt Ali Gum'a Confronted with Questions about the Treatment of Women in Islam and Blames "Secularists" for Terrorism Worldwide, MEMRI, September 13, 2007 http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1586.htm,

Maximilien Robespierre photo

“Citizens, imagination usually sets the limits of the possible and the impossible; but when you have the will to do good, you must have the courage to cross these limits.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

13 August 1793, Presenting his education plan to the National Convention
Misc Quotes

Origen photo
China Miéville photo

“It’s about the positing of something impossible—whether not-yet-possible or never-possible—and then taking that impossibility and granting it its own terms and systematicity.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Interview with Joan Gordon
Context: There’s simultaneously something rigorous and something playful in genre. It’s about the positing of something impossible—whether not-yet-possible or never-possible—and then taking that impossibility and granting it its own terms and systematicity. It’s carnivalesque in its impossibility and overturning of reality, but it’s rationalist in that it pretends it is real. And it’s that second element which I think those who dip their toes in the SF pond so often forget. They think sf is “about” analogies, and metaphors, and so on. I refute that—I think that those are inevitable components, but it’s the surrendering to the impossible, the weird, that characterizes genre. Those flirting with SF don’t surrender to it; they distance themselves from it, and have a neon sub-text saying, “It’s okay, this isn’t really about spaceships or aliens, it’s about real life,” not understanding that it can be both, and would do the latter better if it was serious about the former.

Pearl S.  Buck photo

“All things are possible until they are proved impossible — and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

A Bridge for Passing (1962)

Don Soderquist photo

“I believe there are hundreds and thousands of stories just waiting to be written by organizations and companies who have leaders that inspire people to accomplish things that seem impossible. The only way that can happen, though, is if the leader believes it is possible—has even a mustard seed of faith—and can convince his people that the seemingly impossible is indeed possible.”

Don Soderquist (1934–2016)

Don Soderquist “ The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company https://books.google.com/books?id=mIxwVLXdyjQC&lpg=PR9&dq=Don%20Soderquist&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q=Don%20Soderquist&f=false, Thomas Nelson, April 2005, p. 106.
On Leading Well

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“You do realize how many impossible things have to be true for that to have happened?”

Source: 2000s and posthumous publications, A Time Odyssey, Firstborn (2007), Chapter 29, “Alexei” (p. 187)

Related topics