Quotes about possible
page 14

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“Don't we all live in our heads? Where else could we possibly exist? Our brainsthe universe.”

Kate DiCamillo (1964) American children's writer

Source: Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

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“It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 56
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Context: It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs.
Context: The readiness for self-sacrifice is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life.... For self-sacrifice is an unreasonable act.... All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world.... by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it.... To rely on the evidence of senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbeliefs.

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“How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
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“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

As quoted in The Story of Our Money (1946) by Olive Cushing Dwinell, p. 71; this is in an author's note following a quote by Alexander Hamilton. After the author's note there is the sentence "From Writings of Madison, previously quoted. Vol. 2, p. 14". This is apparently an editor's error since the note is clearly Dwinell's. See the talk page for more details.
Misattributed

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“Noooo, there’s no way I, a mere handsome and sexy shopkeeper, could possibly have bankai!” — Urahara Kisuke”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 06

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“Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

Source: Self-Consciousness : Memoirs (1989), Ch. 3

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“Where the questions of religion are concerned people are guilty of every possible kind of insincerity and intellectual misdemeanor.”

Variant: Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanor.
Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927), Ch. 6

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“I don't think necessity is the mother of invention — invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Part III: Growing Up, §II
Source: An Autobiography (1977)

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“Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

A Joy for Ever, note 6 (1857).
Context: For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them.

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“Why do we write?
"To make suffering endurable
To make evil intelligible
To make justice desirable
and… to make love possible”

Roger Rosenblatt (1940) American writer

Source: Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing

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“Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Variant: Because you are alive, everything is possible.
Source: Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers

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“A satisfactory translation is not always possible, but a good translator is never satisfied with it. It can usually be improved. (Newmark)”

Peter Newmark (1916–2011) English translation scholar

Source: Manual De Traduccion / A Textbook of Translation

“the enduring struggle to capture in words the infinite possibilities of a life not lived.”

Anita Shreve (1946–2018) American writer

Source: The Last Time They Met

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