Impossibility Quotes. Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922

Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.

Impossibility


You cannot make a crab walk straight. Aristophanes—Pax. 1083.	1
It is not a lucky word, this same impossible; no good comes of those that have it so often in their mouth. Carlyle—French Revolution. Pt. III. Bk. III. Ch. X.	2
And what’s impossible, can’t be, And never, never comes to pass. Geo. Colman (The Younger)—Broad Grins. The Maid of the Moor.	3
Hope not for impossibilities. Fuller—The Holy and Profane States. Of Expecting Preferment. Maxim I.	4
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Samuel Johnson—Rasselas. Ch. XII.	5
Simul flare sorbereque haud facile Est: ego hic esse et illic simul, haud potui. To blow and to swallow at the same time is not easy; I cannot at the same time be here and also there. Plautus—Mostellaria. Act III. 2. 105.	6
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible. R. B. Sheridan—The Critic. Act II. Sc. 1.	7
Certum est quia impossibile est. The fact is certain because it is impossible. Tertullian—De Carne Christi. Ch. V. Pt. II. Called “Tertullian’s rule of faith.” Also given “Credo quia impossibile.” I believe because it is impossible. Same idea in St. Augustine—Confessions. VI. 5. (7). Credo quia absurdum est. An anonymous rendering of the same.	8
You cannot make, my Lord, I fear, a velvet purse of a sow’s ear. John Walcot—Lord B. and his Notions.	9