Quotes about possible
page 12

“I fell victim to the temptation of every autobiographer, to the illusion that since the past exists only in one's memories and the words which strive vainly to encapsulate them, it is possible to create past events simply by saying they occurred.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

Memory, Past

“Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Problem

“Violence is never the answer but sometimes, like with cockroaches, it is the only possible response.”

Tanya Huff (1957) Canadian fantasy author

“A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

“If there is any possible consolation in the tragedy of losing someone we love very much, it's the necessary hope that perhaps it was for the best.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Love, Hope

“My house seems remarkably full of people," he observed. "Is it possible we were expected.”

Georgette Heyer book These Old Shades

Source: These Old Shades

People, Housing

“Where happiness was not a possibility, the illusion of it was always more important.”

Colum McCann Zoli

Source: Zoli

Happiness

“Anything seems possible at night when the rest of the world has gone to sleep.”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

World, Sleep, Night

“I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything,' maybe that would have made the impossible possible. Maybe, but I couldn't do it, I had buried too much too deeply inside me. And here I am, instead of there.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Love

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a
new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be
released and channeled toward some great good.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

World, Waiting, Personality

“Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)

Perhaps the adjective "elderly" requires definition. In physics, mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties. There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory!

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962; as revised in 1973)
On Clarke's Laws

Law

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”

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

March 1937
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

World, Deep, Friendship, Relationship

“What can she possibly teach you, twenty seven names for tears?”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Tear

“I comfort myself with the reflection that your wife will possibly be able to curb your desire--I admit, a natural one for the most part--to exterminate your fellows.”

Georgette Heyer book Devil's Cub

Source: Devil's Cub

Nature, Parting

“Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.”

Atul Gawande (1965) American surgeon

Source: Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

“Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence… Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.”

Franz Kafka book The Silence of the Sirens

"The Silence of the Sirens" (October 1917)

Silence, Singing

“Soon you give up, don't look for her anymore, either in the town or at night or in the daytime.
Even so you have managed to live that love in the only way possible for you. Losing it before it happened.”

Marguerite Duras book The Malady of Death

Source: The Malady of Death

Love, Way, Night

“Nothing … will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 6

“I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible.”

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter

Boy

“That life isn't fair?" Yeah, that, of course. But I also learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief… lessens.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Variant: ... I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief... lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Life, Learning, Time

“Is this how it goes? You fall in love, and nothing seems truly scary anymore, and life is one big possibility?”

Jenny Han book Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Source: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Love, Life

“most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Wilson Lewis, Epilogue, p. 262-263
Variant: But most of all, I learned that it’s possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there’s been a lifetime of disappointment between them.
Source: 2000s, The Wedding (2003)
Context: The events of the past year have taught me much about myself, and a few universal truths. I learned, for instance, that while wounds can be inflicted easily upon those we love, it's often much more difficult to heal them. Yet the process of healing those wounds provided the richest experience of my life, leading me to believe that while I've often overestimated what I could accomplish in a day, I had underestimated what I could do in a year. But most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.

Love, People, Disappointment, Learning

“I want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you. -Peeta Mellark”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Variant: I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you.
Source: Catching Fire

Life

“Love is one of the true mysteries,' he said at last. 'The truest and the deepest of all. One thing, Maerad: to love is never wrong. It may be disastrous; it may never be possible; it may be the deepest agony. But it is never wrong.”

Alison Croggon book The Riddle

Source: The Riddle

Love

“Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Source: Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1961 - 1970, Diary of a Genius (1964), p. 26

Understanding, Nature

“I avoid literature whenever possible, because whenever possible I avoid myself…”

Thomas Bernhard book Wittgenstein's Nephew

Source: Wittgenstein's Nephew

Literature

“So what’s on the agenda for tonight? (Danger)
Migraine, futility, possible death. Same as every night, I guess. (Alexion)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Sins of the Night

Death, Night

“I had very good eyes once. Though it's another thing to say what I saw. In my experience, it is entirely possible to watch something happen and not to see it at all.”

Anna Funder book All That I Am

Source: All That I Am

“The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

Coth, in Book Four : Coth at Porutsa, Ch. XXVI : The Realist in Defeat
Source: The Silver Stallion (1926)
Context: Yet creeds mean very little... The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.

World, Fear, Funny

“I was heading to Nebraska. Now there's a sentence you don't want to say too often if you can possibly help it.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

Help

“Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through anyone that suits you.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

René Descartes book Principles of Philosophy

Original Latin: Veritatem inquirenti, semel in vita de omnibus, quantum fieri potest, esse dubitandum
Variant translation: If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Principles of Philosophy (1644)
Variant: In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

Life, Truth

“A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

“Dejardins was so stunned, he momentarily forgot how to speak English. "Ce n'est pas possible. On ne pourrait pas-”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“They all talked at once, their voices insistent and contradictory and impatient, making of unreality a possibility, then a probability, then an incontrovertible fact, as people will when their desires become words.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Source: The Sound and the Fury

People

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Quote from People, 27 September 1976
Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1971 - 1980

Art, Drawing, Cheating

“That’s a wonderful story.”

“He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you’re certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Variant: He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you're certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.
Source: The Lucky One

Thinking

“Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.”

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

Happiness, Knowledge

“A question with no answer is a barrier that cannot be breached. In other words, it is questions with no answers that set the limits of human possibilities, describe the boundaries of human existence.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Question

“Life has taught me that to fly, you must first accept the possibility of falling.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Walk

Life, Flying

“You let a possibility into your mind, you let it into your life.”

Lisa Wingate

Dandelion Summer

Life

“A soldier is a "Yahoo" hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own Species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

“Nothing is as heady as the wine of possibility”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Wine

“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)

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Thinking, Parent

“A bridge is a meeting place… a possibility, a metaphor.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

Source: The Passion (1987)
Context: We didn't build our bridges simply to avoid walking on water. Nothing so obvious. A bridge is a meeting place. A neutral place. A casual place. Enemies will choose to meet on a bridge and end their quarrel in that void... For lovers, a bridge is a possibility, a metaphor of their chances. And for the traffic in whispered goods, where else but a bridge in the night? (p.57)

“I just don't believe in helping people who are going to torture me. Though I don't see any bamboo slivers. How can you possibly torture someone without bamboo slivers?”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Circus of the Damned

Source: Circus of the Damned

People, Help

“Today I believe in the possibility of love; that is why I endeavor to trace its imperfections, its perversions.”

Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks

Source: Black Skin, White Masks

Love

“It is more than possible; it is probable.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

For Parents

“[W]hen you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Source: When Harry Met Sally

Life

“How is it possible for me to be so miserable and embarrassed and humiliated and beaten an function still talk and smile and concentrate?”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Smile

“You are using your own moral intuitions to authenticate the wisdom of the Bible - and then, in the next moment, you assert that we human beings cannot possibly rely upon our own intuitions to rightly guide us in the world.”

Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation

Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

Wisdom, World

“I wonder if it's possible to have a love affair that lasts forever.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Love

“It is possible to avoid pain? Yes, but you'll never learn anything. Is it possible to know something without ever having experiencing it? Yes, but it will never truly be part of you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Pain, Learning, Parting

“Political activism is seductive because it seems to offer the possibility that one can improve society, make things better, without going through the personal ordeal of rearranging one's perceptions and transforming one's self.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

Personality

“Nobody has a perfect life and it's entirely possible that if you want someone else's life they are busy wanting someone else's too–maybe even yours.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Life, Business, Perfection

“Clarke's Second Law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)
On Clarke's Laws

Law, Way, Past

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: The Silver Gryphon

Question, Fish, Dead

“All things are possible.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

“It is better to look suffering straight in the eye, acknowledge and respect it’s presence, and then get busy as soon as possible focusing on things we choose to focus on.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934) Hungarian American psychologist

Business, Suffering

“It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Hope

“You only live once, buy Picassos whenever possible.”

James Frey My Friend Leonard

Source: My Friend Leonard

“Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world, to make peace possible for the world, to make happiness possible for the world.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Teachings on Love

Happiness, World, Peace, Chance

“The American ideal is, after all, that everyone should be as much alike as possible.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“I came to New York and in only hours, New York did what it does to people: awakened the possibilities. Hope breaks out.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

People, Hope

“Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

Suffering

“There are two words that you should use frequently in your youth: ´sorry´ and ´thank-you´. Use the first one as often as possible, so that on your death bed all that you have to say to your friends is ´thank-you!´.”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Death, Youth

“Hope knows that if great trials are avoided great deeds remain undone and the possibility of growth into greatness of soul is aborted.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

Hope, Soul

“By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.”

James C. Collins (1958) American business consultant and writer

Source: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

“Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Context: You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

Learning, Future

“I am certain that a Sewing Machine would relieve as much human suffering as a hundred Lunatic Asylums, and possibly a good deal more.”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace (1996)

Suffering

“Brian Andreas Promise #1:
Promises to Myself #1: I will tell the truth unless I get confused & I think I could get in real trouble if someone found out, in which case, I will lie as convincingly as possible for as long as I feel the need.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Truth, Lie, Feeling, Thinking

“There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

World

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Variant: It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
Source: The Alchemist

Life, Dreams, Motivational, Deep

“The only moral it is possible to draw from this story is that one should never throw the Q letter into a privet bush, but unfortunately there are times when it is unavoidable.”

Douglas Adams book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Time, Drawing

“Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in Visions : How Science Will Revolutionize the Twenty-First Century (1999) by Michio Kaku, p. 295
2000s and attributed from posthumous publications

Universe, Sad, Deep, Depressing

“…I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief…lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Time

“One should make the best choice possible given the circumstances, and then avoid second-guessing for the sake of one's own sanity.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Again the Magic

“It would be so great if it were possible to go through life without making a single mistake but there is no such path. Falling, tripping, losing the way, making mistakes, little by little, walking one step at a time, this is the only way.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Life, Way, Time

“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

As quoted in Visions from Earth (2004) by James Miller

“It is a woman's business to get married as soon as possible, and a man's
to keep unmarried as long as he can.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Business

“Any moment calledis always full of possibles.”

China Miéville book Kraken

Source: Kraken

“You think you know your possibilities.
Then other people come into your life
and suddenly there are so many more.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

Life, People, Thinking

“A library doesn’t need windows, Andrew. We have books, which are windows into worlds we never even dreamed possible.”

Chris Grabenstein book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Source: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Books, World, Dreams

“It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

“You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Heart

“I love you, Eveline," he whispered, though he knew she could not hear him. "Somehow, I'll make you hear me and you'll know that I love you as fiercely as it's possible for a man to love a woman.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Never Seduce a Scot

Love

“Unforgiveness denies the victim the possibility of parole and leaves them stuck in the prison of what was, incarcerating them in their trauma and relinquishing the chance to escape beyond the pain.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

Pain, Chance

“At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn’t possible to save mankind.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

Love, Life

“The next time you try to seduce anyone, don't do it with talk, with words. Women know more about words than men ever will. And they know how little they can ever possibly mean.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Women, Men, Time

“Play is the exultation of the possible.”

Martin Buber (1878–1965) German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian

“But I don't have anything left inside of me to figure out where I fit in or what I want. If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

“Was it possible to measure what the heart felt?”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Full Moon

Heart

“A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It's a creator of inwardness.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Books, World, Education, Nature

“Remember: He WANTS your fellowship, and He has done everything possible to make it a reality. He has forgiven your sins, at the cost of His own dear Son. He has given you His Word, and the priceless privilege of prayer and worship.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

Reality

“The heavy red roses smoldering in the foggy morning, blood-colored and uninhibited, made me greedy, and tempted me powerfully to steal one--I asked the prices merely so I could come as near them as possible.”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Source: Hunger

Color

“I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Letter to Mr. Clarke, librarian to the Prince Regent (1815-12-11) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters
Context: I am quite honoured by your thinking me capable of drawing such a clergyman as you gave the sketch of in your note of Nov. 16th. But I assure you I am not. The comic part of the character I might be equal to, but not the good, the enthusiastic, the literary. Such a man's conversation must at times be on subjects of science and philosophy, of which I know nothing; or at least be occasionally abundant in quotations and allusions which a woman who, like me, knows only her own mother-tongue, and has read little in that, would be totally without the power of giving. A classical education, or at any rate a very extensive acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears to me quite indispensable for the person who would do any justice to your clergyman; and I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.

Thinking