Quotes about possibility (6358 quotes, page 64)

“I as President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in such a destructive situation made every possible effort to return the dialogue to normal and prevent an escalation of tension with Moldova.”

Vadim Krasnoselsky (1970) politician

Source: Vadim Krasnoselsky (2021) cited in " Commentary by Vadim Krasnoselsky regarding the next appeal to the President of the Republic of Moldova https://novostipmr.com/en/news/21-12-24/commentary-vadim-krasnoselsky-regarding-next-appeal-president" on Novosti Pridnestrovya, 24 December 2021.

Effort

“The real significance of the Russell paradox, from the standpoint of the modal-logic picture, is this: it shows that no concrete structure can be a standard model for the naive conception of the totality of all sets; for any concrete structure has a possible extension that contains more 'sets.'”

Hilary Putnam (1926–2016) American philosopher

"Mathematics without foundations"
Source: Philosophical Papers Volume 1: Mathematics, Matter, and Method (1975, 1979)
Context: (If we identify sets with the points that represent them in the various possible concrete structures, we might say: it is not possible for all possible sets to exist in any one world!) Yet set theory does not become impossible. Rather, set theory becomes the study of what must hold in, e.g. any standard model for Zermelo set theory.

“The life I've led has only been made possible because I'm an American. The astounding people I've met along the way, the astonishing experience I've had, and the amazing opportunities I've been given have far exceeded anything I could have ever hoped for or expected.”

Lynn Compton book Call of Duty

Source: Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers (2008), Preamble

Hope , People , Way , Life

“Life confers a value on things -- they do not have any value by themselves -- inasmuch as they are suited to it and satisfy its desires. But this spontaneous evaluation by life is only possible, in turn, if life experiences itself, even through its most humble needs, as what it is and must be, as an absolute value. The fundamental values have no other content than what is implied in life's first experience of itself; they are the proper content of this life.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Michel Henry, Barbarism, Continuum, 2012, p. 97
Books on Culture and Barbarism, Barbarism (1987)

Life

“The much bigger thing is that we as human beings shepherd and create our intellectual history as a civilization. And it is that intellectual history on the shelf that we can pull off the shelf to do stuff, and to avoid doing the dumb things again, because somebody already did the dumb thing and wrote about their experience and we don't need to do it again. There are several processes that are creating that record, and other processes where people are trying to destroy bits of that record, and others that are trying to prevent people from putting things into that record in the first place. We all live off that intellectual record. So what we want to do is get as much into the record, prevent as much as possible being deleted from the record, and then make the record as searchable as possible.”

Julian Assange book When Google Met Wikileaks

Source: Julian Assange, "When Google Met Wikileaks" (ORbooks, New York, 2014), p.124

History , People

“I intend to act as tough as possible ... Together we will overcome this black period in the history of Kazakhstan.”

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (1953) Kazakh politician

Source: Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (2021) cited in: " State of emergency in Kazakhstan as Tokayev asks CSTO's help https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/state-of-emergency-in-kazakhstan-as-tokayev-asks-cstos-help" in Daily Sabah, 5 January 2021.

History

“In a government which is emphatically stiled a government of laws, the least possible range ought to be left for the discretion of the judge.”

William Cranch (1769–1855) United States federal judge (1769-1855)

Source: Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States (1804) https://books.google.com/books?id=Wxm9qWvls8YC&pg=PR3

Law

“I think people out there in the real world, our constituents, just want us to get on with the job of getting the best deal possible for them”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: EU referendum: Corbyn tells activists 'I did all I could' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36628305 BBC News (25 June 2016)

People , Thinking , World

“Possibly, the most common error of a smart engineer is to optimize something that should not exist.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

Source: Said while giving tour of Starbase to Tim Dodd, July 30, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t705r8ICkRw

Optimism , Error

“Here is the root of all romanticism: that man, the individual, is an infinite reservoir of possibilities; and if you can so rearrange society by the destruction of oppressive order then these possibilities will have a chance and you will het Progress. One can define the classical quite clearly as the exact opposite to this. Man is an extraordinary fixed and limited animal whose nature is absolutely constant. It is only by tradition and organization that anything decent can be got out of him.”

T. E. Hulme (1883–1917) English Imagist poet and critic

Source: Speculations (Essays, 1924)

Chance , Nature , Animals

“Correct breathing must be deep, slow, even, and controlled by the mind and will. If it is deep it allows all the necessary rays and forces of nature to be drawn in and to reach every part of the body. If it is slow, then all possible benefits can be obtained before it is expelled again. If it is even, a rhythm is established in time with the rhythm of nature; the various vibrations of the body tune in with each other, and with the cosmic life-giving rays, thus producing a complete harmonious integration. If it is controlled by the mind and will, outside influences cannot upset the personal rhythm, nor distract the individual from his goal.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XV The Essential Science of Breathing

Personality , Nature , Life , Time

“There's a right of self-defense here that's involved: We know the government has to respond, so we will not be subjected to these types of attacks in the future. But the response should be measured, restrained as much as possible, to protect innocent civilians. It should not just be military. We should pursue diplomatic ways, legal ways, any other ways we can address that.”

Joseph Fiorenza (1931–2022) US Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Bishops Write Bush to Back U.S. Efforts https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/21/us/a-nation-challenged-support-from-churches-bishops-write-bush-to-back-us-efforts.html (21 September 2001)

Future , Way

“They invite cherry-picked young people to meetings like this to pretend that they listen to us. But they clearly don’t listen to us. Our emissions are still rising. The science doesn’t lie. We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.”

Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist

Source: 'Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis, by Damian Carrington, The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/28/blah-greta-thunberg-leaders-climate-crisis-co2-emissions, (28 September 2021)

People , Truth , Lie , Science

“I've come to believe that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us... I began to wonder, reluctantly, whether it was possible that being in school itself was what was dumbing them down. Was it possible I had been hired not to enlarge children's power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy on the face of it, but slowly I began to realize that the bells and the confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior.”

John Taylor Gatto book Dumbing Us Down

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), pp. xxxiii-xxxiv

Dependency , Nature , Thinking , Children

“[T]he woman's right to decide for herself... is now subject to regulation, and possibly even prohibition, by our elected representatives. ...Even as the public agenda is stretched to address... questions as the right to die, no issue threatens to divide us politically in... as powerful a way as the abortion issue...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Source: Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (1990), Approaching Abortion Anew

Way , Question

“Although it is not thought or some other form of knowledge, although it is not the truth of the world, that gives access to the Revelation of God, at least a single possibility persist, already mentioned as a simple matter of fact and now rendered unimpeachable. Access to God, understood as his self-revelation according to a phenomenality proper to Him, is not susceptible of being produced except where this self-revelation is produced and in the way self-revelation does so. There where God originally arrives in himself, in the phenomenalization of phenomenality that is his own and is thus like the self-phenomenalization of this phenomenality proper – there alone is access to God. It is not that thought is lacking and so we cannot accede to the Revelation of God. Quite the contrary, it is only when thought defaults, because the truth of the world is absent, that what is at stake be achieved: the self-revelation of God – the self-phenomenalization of pure phenomenality against the background of a phenomenality that is not that of the world.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 27

Knowledge , God , Truth , Way

“This is the miracle of abstract painting: it constructs the unlimited monumentality of a work that no longer has a foothold in the visible world, that ignores its rules and does not seek anything from it, neither aid nor sanction, and that emerges with the pure force and infinite certainty of life. Withdrawn from the weight of things and from the inertial systems in which things are held and have their limited possibilities circumscribed, the work of art proceeds from the imagination. To imagine is to posit something other than what is and what is there right in front of us -- something other than the world. To imagine is to posit life.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Culture and Barbarism, Seeing the Invisible: On Kandinsky (1988)
Source: Michel Henry, Seeing the invisible: On Kandinsky, Continuum, 2009, p. 107

Imagination , Painting , Life , World

“The terrible exploitation of native labor and destruction of native home life and the degenerating living conditions which have often been the result of private enterprise will no longer be possible.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter VII The Council for Economics

Home , Life

“Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

"Trump says Biden's plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan is a 'wonderful and positive thing to do'" https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-biden-afghanistan-pullout-wonderful-and-positive-thing-to-do-2021-4?r=US&IR=T, Business Insider, 19 April 2021
2021, April 2021

“The purpose of all the Church's activity is the salvation of souls. The Curia and other institutions are instruments that must be as flexible as possible in the Pope's and Bishops' hands, to take Christ to the ends of the world.”

Francesco Monterisi (1934) Italian cardinal

Cardinal Monterisi: Francis Is Awakening Fervor https://zenit.org/2013/04/24/cardinal-monterisi-francis-is-awakening-fervor/ (24 April 2013)

Soul , World , Christ

“It may possibly be urged the shape of a culture—its mores, evaluations, family organizations, eating habits, living patterns, pedagogical methods, institutions, forms of government, and so forth—arise from the economic necessities of its technology.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Waldo

Waldo (p. 134)
Short fiction, The Fantasies of Robert A. Heinlein (1999)

Family

“The only proper course of action regarding humanity was to leave it alone, and, if possible, isolate it. Just as one would handle any other sophont that was quite irremediably and dangerously insane.”

Charles E. Gannon (1960) American novelist

Source: Trial by Fire (2014), Chapter 40 (p. 577)

“When the Bible was the only book people knew, they naturally thought it embodied all that is true; but when their reading expanded, and with it the world, and a sense of other times, other voices, other possibilities and points of view, that authority could not last.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 20, “Intellectuals” (p. 86)

People , Books , World , Time

“The political friend of today is the possible enemy of tomorrow. And vice versa. All those who work by a calculation of interest in politics must take that into account. Neither give your secrets to the friend nor give the adversary blows that cannot be forgotten.”

Daniel Salamanca (1863–1935) President of Bolivia (1863-1935)

Secret

“[T]he great genie, the granter of wishes—God, in a microcosm—is archetypally trapped in the tiny confines of a lamp and subject, as well, to the will of the lamp’s current holder. Genie—genius—is the combination of possibility and potential, and extreme constraint.”

Jordan Peterson book Beyond Order

Source: Books, Beyond Order (2021), pp. 35–36

God

“The devolution debate will be based upon a proposition no less objectively false than to assert that two and two make five. It is the proposition that it is possible to establish one or more local parliaments within the unitary parliamentary state known as the United Kingdom.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech to the City Conservative Forum in London (12 November 1975), quoted in The Times (13 November 1975), p. 4
1970s

Falseness

“European integration should not be rigid but as flexible as we can possibly make it. It should not be a straitjacket for the peoples of Europe but should be their common mainstay, a common support for the healthy, individual development of each of them.”

Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) German statesman, Federal Chancellor of Germany, politician (CDU)

Address on continuing European integration at the Grandes Conférences Catholiques https://www.cvce.eu/obj/address_given_by_konrad_adenauer_on_continuing_european_integration_brussels_25_september_1956-en-ea27a4e3-4883-4d38-8dbc-5e3949b1145d.html (25 September 1956)

People , Support

“…study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

excerpt from letter to J. M. Szabados (30 November 1965), quoted in "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track The Letters of Richard P. Feynman" (2005) by Michelle Feynman and Carl Feynman, p. 206

Study

“This body of ours, which we cherish so dearly, will turn into a corpse that our friends and family will only want to dispose of as quickly as possible.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones (1992)

Family

“Our sacred duty is to overcome the shadows of the past, make new tragedies possible. Any encroachments on the peaceful future of Ukraine will meet with instant and resolute response...”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: [2011-06-22, Янукович обмовився, пообіцявши "уможливити нові трагедії", https://tsn.ua/video/video-novini/yanukovich-obmovivsya-poobicyavshi-umozhliviti-novi-tragediyi.html, 2022-06-12, ТСН.ua, uk]

Peace , Past , Future

“None of us move through this world as individuals in isolation. We are all the constellations of people in our lives who believe in us, trust us, and empower us to do the work that it takes to make each moment possible.”

Michelle Wu (1985) City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts

26 May 2022 "2022 Commencement" in BHCCBoston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmUxxL_gFGw&t=4274s

People , World

“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

Courage , Imagination

“We are syndicalists, because we think that by means of the mass it may be possible to determine an economic readjustment…”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

“Fascismo and the Rights of Victory” speech delivered at Florence (9 October 1919) p. 106
1920s, Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November 1914—August 1923) (1923)

Thinking

“I am convinced that nuclear weapons are useless and unpromising as an instrument of State policy. It is necessary to do everything possible to make sure that in the new millennium mankind gets rid once and for all of the fear of devastating nuclear disaster.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 55th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (2000)

Fear

“The disappearance of a world divided into antagonistic systems is related to profound internal transformations in post-socialist countries. I am convinced of the need to establish the most favourable regime possible for those countries’ integration into the international community.”

Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine

Speech at the 50th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1995)

Communication , World , Country

“When once it is no longer possible to understand how a man gives his life for his country – and the time will come – then all is over with that faith also, and the idea of the Fatherland is dead; and then, perhaps, we shall be envied, as we envy the saints their inward and irresistible strength.”

Ernst Jünger book Storm of Steel

Storm of Steel (1920)

Life , Faith , Time , Dead

“Veganism. It’s not a diet, it’s a philosophy, which aims to cause as less cruelty around you as practically possible.”

Dave Leduc (1991) Canadian Lethwei fighter (born 1991)

On veganism
Source: As quoted in Plant Based News https://plantbasednews.org/culture/sport/world-champion-lethwei-fighter-dave-leduc-says-being-vegan-is-a-philosophy-not-a-diet/ (2nd February, 2021)

“If the abstraction is truly made well above the animal nature in man—his gregarious nature—it will keep the ancient rituals of his higher nature as long as possible. Human abstractions if true usually become ritual.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Nature , Animals

“Negotiation is not an act of battle; it’s a process of discovery. The goal is to uncover as much information as possible.”

Chris Voss book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

“The genus Homo, by its origin, is the result of confluence of circumstances. But its further evolutionary development until acquiring a full-fledged mind was only possible with its crucial role.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“Life, which has gifted us with so much valuable and beautiful, so much created and possible, is unquestionably deserving of reverence and service.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Life , Beauty

“Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world — making the most of one's best.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American pastor

Statement of 1937 or earlier, as quoted in The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) edited by Herbert Victor Prochnow

Game , World

“After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as possible to the concentration of your mind upon itself, have writing materials brought to you. Put yourself in as passive, or receptive, a state of mind as you can. Forget about your genius, your talents, and the talents of everyone else. Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that lead to everything. Write quickly, without any preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not remember what you're writing and be tempted to reread what you have written. The first sentence will come spontaneously, so compelling is the truth that with every passing second there is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only crying out to be heard.”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)

Literature , Cry , Forgetting , Truth

“Truly the eye was made to cast a lineament, a conducting wire between the most heterogeneous things. Such a wire, of maximum ductility, should allow us to understand, in a minimum of time, the relationship which connect, without possible discharge of continuity, innumerable physical and mental structures.... the key (of the mental prison, ed.) lies in a free unlimited pay of analogies....”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Quote of Breton, from Introduction to the exhibition of Gorky's first show', Julien Levy Gallery', March 1945; as quoted in Arshile Gorky, – Goats on the roof, ed. by Matthew Spender, Ridinghouse, London, 2009, p. 258
after 1930

Understanding , Time

“Traceless disappearance of a human being is possible but unacceptable. Consequently, his mission is to preserve himself.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“Humanism is a great idea that opens up colossal possibilities and abilities of rationalism.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Idea

“Without love for life, neither human obligations, nor their fulfillment would be possible. Only with love can duty be a free choice and an exciting decent pursuit.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Love , Life

“Don't limit yourself with a negative mindset, instead focus on the possibilities.”

Justin Guerra

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11654666-don-t-limit-yourself-with-a-negative-mindset-instead-focus-on

“In life, live fully all possibilities for freedom and happiness. Every time you will only have that opportunity.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nella vita, vivi appieno tutte le possibilità di libertà e felicità. Ogni volta avrai solo quella opportunità.
Source: prevale.net

Time , Freedom , Happiness , Life

“Man thinks that by thinking he will solve all the secrets of the universe. He forgets that he cannot possibly put the entire ocean into a bucket.”

Titon Rahmawan

Forgetting , Universe , Secret , Thinking

“In today's modern digital era, is it still possible for a government that tends to be tyrannical and despotic to silence voices that oppose it? I don't think so, because nowadays even a silenced voice can have a louder echo than the original voice.”

Titon Rahmawan

Silence , Thinking

“We always see death as a tragedy, it's difficult for us to feel otherwise. Perhaps it's because we never know what will happen afterwards. It's hard to imagine that everything will end well. That should make us realize that salvation is not possible because of our own efforts.”

Titon Rahmawan

Imagination , Death , Feeling , Effort

“After time betrays history. We forget the words of the heroes. What did they shout when a bayonet pierced their chest or a bullet lodged in their head? There was blood that flowed soaking the earth. Not only fostering anger or revenge, but also love for the motherland. It was the overflow of a soul that wanted to fly to freedom. Still wanting to fight against death. For hopes, dreams, justice and truth. No longer shouting the word: "Merdeka!" but to uphold the dignity of our beloved country as high as possible.”

Titon Rahmawan

Soul , History , Flying , Anger

“And we also know that life itself is a seemingly endless battle. A battle between what is good and bad in us. What we can only possibly win by the only way, which is to conquer and defeat ourselves.”

Titon Rahmawan

Way , Life

“When possible, choose wellness. Replace grudge with elegant indifference.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Quando possibile, scegliete il benessere. Sostituite il rancore con un'elegante indifferenza.
Source: prevale.net

Indifference

“Reconstruction, renovation or restoration without destruction is not a necessity. It is not absolute and is always possible. Destruction is necessary to build stronger and better.”

Titon Rahmawan

“The mind is the greatest amplifier of the human body. It has the power to increase pain, but also pleasure. Whenever possible, oriented your thinking.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La mente è il più grande amplificatore del corpo umano. Ha il potere di aumentare il dolore, ma anche il piacere. Quando è possibile, orientate il vostro pensiero.
Source: prevale.net

Pain , Pleasure , Thinking

“Examples of life are those who have succeeded in transforming the impossible into the possible.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Esempi di vita sono coloro che sono riusciti a trasformare l'impossibile in possibile.
Source: prevale.net

Life

Quotes about possibility page 64

Quotes about possibility
page 64