Quotes about possible
page 10

“I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But, well, if you lose a son, its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon. (Kasper Gutman)”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Source: The Maltese Falcon

“She now knew that it was possible to love two people at once—because you could love them in different ways.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Visions

Love, People, Way

“Sighing dismally, she acknowledged that some things just weren't humanly possible - not even Martha Stewart could fold fitted sheets.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

“So many things are possible as long as you don't know they are impossible.”

Mildred D. Taylor The Land

Source: The Land

“Newton's Third Law of Conversation, if it existed, would hold that every statement implies an equal and opposite statement. To say that I'd turned the offer down raised the possibility that I might not have done.”

Hugh Laurie book The Gun Seller

Source: The Gun Seller

Law

“It's all I ever really wanted, that revelation. The possibility of fixed stars.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Star

“I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

Future, Personality

“There are just lots of possibilities in the world… I need to keep my mind open for what could happen and not decide that the world is hopeless if what I want to happen doesn't happen. Because something else great might happen in between.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

World

“Limitations are possibilities…
Opportunities to perceive ourselves
Beyond our present selves…”

Ilchi Lee (1950) South Korean businessman

Songs of Enlightenment

“Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Life

“Community is a sign that love is possible in a materialistic world where people so often either ignore or fight each other. It is a sign that we don't need a lot of money to be happy--in fact, the opposite.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Community And Growth

Love, Money, Happiness, People

“He had the unlucky capacity many men have of seeing and believing in the possibility of goodness and truth, but of seeing the evil and falsehood of life too clearly to take any serious part in it.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Life, Men, Truth, Evil

“Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope and without hope nothing can survive.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Hope

“Surviving - that is the other name of a mourning whose possibility is never to be awaited.”

Jacques Derrida (1930–2004) French philosopher (1930-2004)

Source: The Politics of Friendship

“I did Google him, you know."
"Oh, so you GOOGLED him Oh, well, that changes everything then, doesn't it? What could I possibly worry about now that I know you've conducted such a thorough Internet search?”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Fated

Search, Change

“Roses are red
Violets are blue
Everything's possible
Nothing is true.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

Source: V for Vendetta, Vol. VIII of X

“In all the land there is only one you, possibly two, but seldom more than sixteen.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Source: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

“It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

Happiness, Future

“There's something about a roof isn't there? It makes you feel like it doesn't matter what's going on below. All of those things that get in the way of your dreams - you're above them. Anything is possible.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

Dreams, Way, Feeling

“I filled my head with thoughts of the future, of infinite possibly. There's someone out there who will one day find me and fall in love with me and prove that all this waiting actually meant something….”

Perry Moore book Hero

Source: Hero

Love, Waiting, Future

“Love can rebuild the world, they say, so everything's possible when it comes to love.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Love, World

“Broaden your horizons. They're the only ones you'll ever have, so make the suckers as wide as possible.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Anyone But You

“Hope is a passion for the possible.”

Sören Kierkegaard book Fear and Trembling

Source: Fear and Trembling

Hope, Passion

“How was it possible for the world to be so beautiful and so cruel at the same time?”

Gillian Rubinstein Tales of the Otori

Source: Across the Nightingale Floor

World, Beauty, Time

“If you don't feel that you are possibly on the edge of humiliating yourself, of losing control of the whole thing, then probably what you are doing isn't very vital.”

John Irving (1942) American novelist and screenwriter

Feeling

“Footsteps in the snow
suggest where you have been,
point to where you were going:
but when they suddenly vanish,
never dismiss the possibility
of flight…”

Diane Duane (1952) American author

“If you talk about it, it's a dream, if you envision it, it's possible, but if you schedule it, it's real.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Source: Get the Edge

Dreams, Motivational, Deep, Success

“Is it possible to become ecstatic amid destruction, rejuvenate oneself through cruelty?”

Arthur Rimbaud book Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“My wife is my closest friend. Sure, I'm attracted to her in every way possible, but that's not the answer. Because I've been attracted to other people, and I couldn't stand 'em after a while.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

People, Way

“Her one drink had Cecelia giggling and talking and she was explaining that animals had souls too. Nobody challenged her opinion. It was possible, we knew. What we weren't sure of was if we had any.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Soul, Drink, Animals

“When you spring to an idea, and decide it is truth, without evidence, you blind yourself to other possibilities.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

Truth, Spring, Idea

“It is not possible to control the outside of yourself until you have mastered your breathing space. It is not possible to change anything until you understand the substance you wish to change.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Understanding, Change

“I’ll give you a choice. Kill me.”
“By definition ‘choice’ mandates a minimum of two possible avenues of action.”
“I wasn’t done. Or kiss me. But do one or the other. Before I do one or the other to you.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Burned

Kiss

“How can I accept a limited definable self when I feel, in me, all possibilities?… I never feel the four walls around the substance of the self, the core. I feel only space. Illimitable space.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Feeling

“An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is always possible to be happy.”

Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) British politician

Happiness, Books, World

“You get what you give, but also what you're willing to take. The night before, I'd offered up my hand. Now, if I held on, there was no telling what it was possible to recieve in return.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Night

“India, the new myth--a collective fiction in which anything was possible, a fable rivalled only by the two other mighty fantasies: money and God.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

Money, God

“There's no such thing as im-POSSIBLE, Hiccup, only im-PROBABLE. The only thing that limits us are the limits to our imagination”

Cressida Cowell book How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

Source: How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

Imagination

“It is possible to be truly mad and to still exist upon scraps of life.”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Life, Madness

“The melody faded like a rainbow after a storm, or like winds calming down at last; and what was left was calm, and possibility, and relief.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

“There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Wisdom

“That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the childcatcher from.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Clary, Isabelle, Jace, and Simon, pg. 150
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)
Context: "Traded him for Alec," Clary said.
"Not permanently."
"No," said Jace. "Just for a few hours. Unless I don't come back. In which case, maybe he does get to keep Alec. Think of it as a lease with an option to buy."
"Mom and Dad won't be pleased if they find out."
"That you freed a possible criminal by trading away your brother to a warlock who looks like a gay Sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?" Simon inquired. "No, probably not."

“One possibility is: God is nothing but the power of the universe to organize itself.”

Lee Smolin (1955) American cosmologist

God, Universe

“That is what love is I thought. A possibility that becomes a choice. A choice you keep making over and over. Day after day. Year after year. Time after time.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Variant: That is what love is. A possibility that becomes a choice. A choice you keep making, over and over. Day after day. Year after year. Time after time.
Source: Golden: A Retelling of Rapunzel

Love, Time

“[A]lways get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start."

(Interview,, Issue 64, Winter 1975)”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Feeling, Winter, Speed

“June smiled. "So what will it be? Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Pain, Smile, Future

“A new friend is always a miracle, but at thirty-three years old, such a bird of paradise rising in the sage-brush was an avatar. One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.”

Henry Adams book The Education of Henry Adams

Source: The Education of Henry Adams

Bird

“A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Men, Soul

“Do you think it's possible to finally decide that you really, truly love someone but not end up marrying him?”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Source: As You Wish

Love, Thinking

“I never found beauty in longing for the impossible and never found the possible to be beyond my reach.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Beauty

“To lie a little is not possible: he who lies, lies the whole lie.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Lie

“Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Understanding

“There was no way possible [the queen] could have done all of the things the pamphleteers claimed. The crimes were too gross, too immoral and far too physically challenging. Magnus himself had never attempted half of them.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Runaway Queen

Way

“… an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

Source: Cosmic Trigger: Die letzten Geheimnisse der Illuminaten oder An den Grenzen des erweiterten Bewusstseins

Problem

“But what had happened, had happened, and it was no longer possible to right anything.”

Milan Kundera book Laughable Loves

Source: Laughable Loves

“Helloooo? I just made some changes in my life, and if I don't get back to you as soon as possible, then guess what? You were one of those changes.”

Rumiko Takahashi (1957) manga artist

Life, Change

“They wore blouses with buttons down the front that suggested the possibilities of the word. These women could be undone; or not. They seemed to be able to choose.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Women

“I love you as much as it is possible for a man to love a woman.”

Paullina Simons book Tatiana and Alexander

Source: Tatiana and Alexander

Love

“They courted the face on the screen, the face of translucence, the face of wax on which men found it possible to imprint the image of their fantasy.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Men

“If you're not reading - with your heart as well as your brain - you will be one stupid grown up. Even worst, you'll be missing out on one of the best experiences you can possibly have. Nowhere will you meet more interesting people than in books.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Christmas Wedding

People, Books, Stupidity, Reading

“Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”

D.T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese author and philosopher

“It is quite possible for a work of literature to operate as a war machine upon its epoch.”

Monique Wittig (1935–2003) French writer

War, Literature

“The possible ranks higher than the actual.”

Martin Heidegger book Being and Time

Introduction
Being and Time (1927)

“If you know what you're looking for, that's all you'll get - what's previously known. But when you're open to what's possible, you get something new - that's creativity.”

Alan Alda (1936) actor and United States Army officer

“Imagine no limitations; decide what's right and desirable before you decide
what's possible.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Imagination

“I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Letter to Ed White (5 July 1950) as published in The Missouri Review, Vol. XVII, No. 3, 1994, page 137, and also quoted in Jack Kerouac: Angelheaded Hipster (1996) by Steve Turner, p. 117

Money, Understanding, Fish

““I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one."
— George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill)
"Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one."
— Churchill's response”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Night

“I love you, Gabby, more than you'll ever know. You're everything I've ever wanted in a wife. You're every hope and every dream I've ever had, and you've made me happier than any man could possibly be. I don't ever want to give that up. I can't.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Love, Dreams, Hope

“I wondered if it was possible to take someone's pain away with a kiss. Because that was what i wanted to do, take all of his sadness and pour it out of him, comfort him, make the boy i knew come back.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Pain, Sadness, Boy, Kiss

“Over the years they both reached the same wise conclusion by different paths: it was not possible to live together in any other way, or love in any other way, and nothing in this world was more difficult than love.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Love, World, Way

“[They] agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

People, Education, Question

“And everywhere, infinite options, infinite possibilities. An infinity, and at the same time, zero. We try to scoop it all up in our hands, and what we get is a handful of zero. That's the city”

Haruki Murakami book The Elephant Vanishes

Source: The Elephant Vanishes

Time

“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Feeling

“Writing is saying to no one and to everyone the things it is not possible to say to someone.”

Rebecca Solnit book The Faraway Nearby

Source: The Faraway Nearby

“Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.”

Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905–1988) Swedish Catholic theologian

Love, Faith

“It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“See? This is why I'm not religious. I couldn't possibly keep my mouth shut long enough to get along with everyone else.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

“Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

Source: The Humans

Happiness

“Beginning with Santa in infancy, and ending with the Tooth Fairy as the child acquires adult teeth. Or, plainly put, beginning with all the possibility of childhood, and ending with an absolute trust in the national currency.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Childhood

“What's her name?"

"None of your business."

"That can't possibly be her name.”

Lisa Lutz (1970) US author

Source: The Spellman Files

Business

“I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.”

Don DeLillo Mao II

Part 1, Ch. 3
Source: Mao II (1991)
Context: There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists... Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.

Life, Thinking

“He was so different from her, yet in his presence she felt the possibility of another kind of life, a life she had never imagined could be hers. A life without the rigid limitations others had always set for her.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Life, Imagination