Quotes about possible
page 14

“Give as few orders as possible," his father had told him once long ago. "Once you've given orders on a subject, you must always give orders on that subject.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

“I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one's skin, at the extreme corners of one's eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.”

Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter

Source: Letter to My Daughter

Fear, Dreams, Home

“To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill and eat them. Perfect.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Love, Problem, Perfection

“When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Life, Sense

“It's possible to pretend I'm someone other than who I am, and if I pretend long enough, I can believe it.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

“I don’t expend my energy trying to fight the change of seasons. I focus on making sure the days I have, and the season I oversee, are as joyful, rich, and plentiful as possible.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Change, Fight, Season

“He has become a worm. That is what I am telling you."
"I don't suppose it would be possible," said Henry into the silence, "to, er, step on him?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Silence

“Unusual financial activity: none, unless you count the fact that someone in the family is way too into Civil War biographies. (Can this be a possible indication of Confederate insurgents still living and working in Virginia? Must research further.)”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

War, Family, Way

“Action, as distinguished from fabrication, is never possible in isolation; to be isolated is to be deprived of the capacity to act.”

Hannah Arendt book The Human Condition

Source: The Human Condition

“As many have discovered, it is entirely possible (although not particularly desirable) to love two people with all your heart. It is entirely possible to long for two lives, to feel that one life can't come close to containing it all.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Love, Life, People, Feeling

“Sometimes life has a cruel sense of humor, giving you the thing you always wanted at the worst time possible.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Life, Sense, Time, Heartbreaking

“Froi saw the foolishness of dreamers, and he decided he'd like to die so foolish. With a dream in his heart about the possibilities, rather than a chain of hopelessness.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Dreams, Heart

“That's another reason I keep putting marriage off. I know I want something like what you two share, and I'm not sure I've found it yet. I'm not sure I ever will. And with love like that… they say anything's possible, right?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Love, Marriage

“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

Universe

“In real life, love has to be possible. Even if it is not returned right away, love can only survive when the hope exists that you will be able to win over the person you desire.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Love, Life, Hope, Personality

“More is happening out there than we are aware of.
It is possibly due to some unknown direful circumstance.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

“I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible.”

Ian McEwan book Enduring Love

Source: Enduring Love

Time

“It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Dreams, Imagination, Time, Heart

“Quite possibly there's nothing as fine as a big freight train starting across country in early summer, Hardesty thought. That's when you learn that the tragedy of plants is that they have roots.”

Mark Helprin book Winter's Tale

Source: Winter's Tale

Learning, Summer, Training, Country

“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.

“You are freakishly tall, aren’t you? (Tory)
For a woman wanting my help you are ever determined to insult me. Should I make this as painless as possible and leave now before the die-painfully-you-asshole-prick stuff starts again? (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Help

“we are human beings, we are born full of guilt; we feel terrified when happiness becomes a real possibility.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Happiness, Feeling

“As the possibility of a relationship had faded, Emma had endeavored to harden herself to Dexter's indifference and these days a remark like this caused no more pain than, say, a tennis ball thrown sharply at the back of her head.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Pain, Indifference

“Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

“Well,” Naomi said cheerfully, “what’s the worst that can happen?” They were silent, considering that, because there were just so many possibilities. But in the end, it was a better idea than Facebook.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Idea

“They parted at last with mutual civility, and possibly a mutual desire of never meeting again.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Parting

“We’ve known for a long time that it was no longer possible to overturn this world, nor reshape it, nor head off its dangerous headlong rush. There’s been only one possible resistance: to not take it seriously.”

Milan Kundera book The Festival of Insignificance

Source: The Festival of Insignificance

World, Time

“We weren’t ourselves when we fell in love, and when we became ourselves – surprise! – we were poison. We complete each other in the nastiest, ugliest possible way.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Love, Way

“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

World

“It was possible that a miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that didn’t.”

Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle

Source: The Tenth Circle

“How is it possible that our parents lied to us?"

"Lets see: Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter bunny, um, God. You're the prettiest kid in school. This wont hurt a bit. Your face will freeze like that…"

"Everythings going to be alright.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride and Joy

God, School, Parent, Hurt

“Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Life, Knowledge

“Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

“All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul. You gain little glimpses of its light, colors, and contours. You feel the inspiration of its possibilities and the wonder of its mysteries.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Color, Feeling, Soul, Sense

“You are always looking at people like this.” And then she made a face, one he couldn’t possibly begin to describe.
“If I ever look like that,” he said dryly, “precisely like that, to be more precise, I give you leave to shoot me.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: Just Like Heaven

People

“Even those who do not, or cannot, avail themselves of a scientific education, choose to benefit from the technology that is made possible by the scientific education of others.”

Richard Dawkins book A Devil's Chaplain

Source: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

Education

“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

Money, History

“Be joyful because it is humanly possible.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

“If I were going to have such a short visit on earth, I had to do everything possible to experience it now.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.”

John Dufresne (1948) Novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright

Source: Love Warps the Mind a Little

Sex, Future

“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

Way

“So I only say, "So what should we do with our last few days?"

"I just want to spend every possible minute of the rest of my life with you," Peeta replies.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Life

“And it's wrong of you to think that love leaves room for nothing else. It's possible to love something and still condescend to it.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

Love, Thinking

“Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.”

Aldous Huxley book The Art of Seeing

Source: The Art of Seeing

Change, Deep

“A deserted library in the morning - there's something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Idea

“I'm not going to do that."
"of course you're not." Jace said. "because you live to torture me, don't you?"
"Not everything, Jace, is about you." Clary said furiously.
"Possibly," Jace said "But you have to admit that the majority of the things are.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Source: Adams-Jefferson Letters

World, Religion, Time, Reading

“Not all possibilities are open to us. The world is finite; our hopes spill over its rim.”

Salman Rushdie book The Satanic Verses

Source: The Satanic Verses

World, Hope

“How was it possible to wake up every day and be recognizable to another when so often one was barely recognizable to oneself?”

Nicole Krauss book Man Walks Into a Room

Source: Man Walks Into a Room

“It really seems to me that in the midst of great tragedy, there is always the horrible possibility that something terribly funny will happen.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

“But if you want to find peace, you must first be able to hope it is possible.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Peace, Hope

“I don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Happiness, Thinking

“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

Dreams, Nature

“She tried to smile sympathetically, but with her face it wasn't quite possible.”

Anthony Horowitz book Point Blanc

Source: Point Blank

Smile

“I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Life, Feeling

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

Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion

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

People, Religion, Question

“I want to ask him if it’s possible that a girl can be born unlovable, or does she just become that way?”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Way, Girl

“The visions are fragmented and a dark cloud spreads like spilt ink across the pages of possible futures.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Lirael

Future

“The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night (1960)

World

“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)

Thinking

“The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

“As with a wound on one's own body, it is possible to develop an intimacy with the most disturbing of things”

Kazuo Ishiguro book A Pale View of Hills

Source: A Pale View of Hills

“Love is a possible strength, in an actual weakness. Marriage transforms a distraction into a support, the power of which should be, and happily often is, in direct proportion to the degree of imbecility it supplants.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Ch. 4

Love, Marriage, Support

“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.