The glories of the possible are ours. [ Bayard Taylor ]
The only possible society is oneself. [ Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband ]
That is not possible which is impossible. [ Hitopadesa ]
Ah, Christ, that it were possible
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell us
What and where they be. [ Tennyson ]
Peace, if possible, but justice at any rate. [ Wendell Phillips ]
All life needs for life is possible to will. [ Tennyson ]
Is it possible? Sits the wind in that corner? [ William Shakespeare ]
Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace
If not, by any means get wealth and place. [ Pope ]
It is possible for a sheep to kill a butcher. [ Proverb ]
If by fire of sooty coal the empiric alchymist
Can turn, or holds it possible to turn,
Metals of drossest ore to perfect gold. [ Milton ]
Avoid as much as possible multiplicity of business. [ Bishop Wilson ]
Everything is for the best, in this best of possible worlds. [ Proverb ]
Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof. [ Channing ]
It is possible to sin against charity, when we do not against truth. [ Proverb ]
Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God Himself, were it possible. [ Bancroft ]
None despise fame more heartily than those who have no possible claim to it. [ J. Petit-Senn ]
To him nothing is possible, who is always dreaming of his past possibilities. [ T. Carlyle ]
When the best things are not possible, the best may be made of those that are. [ Richard Hooker ]
Fictions meant to please should have as much resemblance as possible to truth. [ Horace ]
Persist, persevere, and you will find most things attainable that are possible. [ Chesterfield ]
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. [ Dr. Johnson ]
It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. [ Demosthenes ]
To have no pain, and not be bored, is the utmost happiness possible to man on earth. [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]
If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. [ James A. Garfield ]
The best way to secure future happiness is to be as happy as is rightfully possible today. [ Charles William Eliot ]
It is the greatest possible praise to be praised by a man who is himself deserving of praise. [ From the Latin ]
Mediocrity is less sensitive than genius, and therefore suffers less under nearly any possible exigency. [ William Winter ]
I have ever held it as a maxim never to do that through another which it was possible for me to execute myself. [ Montesquieu ]
Cure oneself as far as possible of a trick common to almost every one, of using four or five adjectives before a noun. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]
In analyzing the character of heroes. It is hardly possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their own. [ Hallam ]
It is scarce possible at once to admire and excel an author, as water rises no higher than the reservoir it falls from. [ Bacon ]
By virtue, integrity, perseverance and true modesty it is possible for all men to win the esteem of their fellow beings. [ C. N. Douglas ]
Education must bring the practice as nearly as possible to the theory. As the children now are, so will the sovereigns soon be. [ Horace Mann ]
The only true and firm friendship is that between man and woman, because it is the only affection exempt from actual or possible rivalry. [ A. Comte ]
A lover is a man who endeavors to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be: this is the reason why almost all lovers are ridiculous. [ Chamfort ]
Our humble lilies of the valley and our field sparrows are wise enough to tell us of Nature's overruling care, that makes happiness possible. [ Newell Dwight Hillis ]
The disesteem and contempt of others is inseparable from pride. It is hardly possible to overvalue ourselves but by undervaluing our neighbors. [ Clarendon ]
In all societies it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest. In the grand theater of human life a box ticket takes you through the house. [ Colton ]
A good library is an anchor to keep a young man from roving, and a helm to aid an old man to gain the greatest possible benefit from what remains of the breeze. [ W. D. Haley ]
The shortest and surest way to prove a work possible is strenuously to set about it; and no wonder if that proves it possible that for the most part makes it so. [ South ]
There is no possible success without some opposition as a fulcrum; force is always aggressive, and crowds something or other, if it does not hit and trample upon it. [ O. W. Holmes ]
Perfect taste is the faculty of receiving the greatest possible pleasure from those material sources which are attractive to our moral nature in its purity and perfection. [ Ruskin ]
It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit. [ Macaulay ]
Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and good and dwell as little as possible on the dark and the base. [ Cecil ]
Let every man, if possible, gather some good books under his roof, and obtain access for himself and family to some social library. Almost any luxury should be sacrificed to this. [ William Ellery Channing ]
When one has been tormented and fatigued by his sensitiveness, he learns that he must live from day to day, forget all that is possible, and efface his life from memory as it passes. [ Chamfort ]
An everlasting tranquility is, in my imagination, the highest possible felicity, because I know of no felicity on earth higher than that which a peaceful mind and contented heart afford. [ Zimmermann ]
Neutrality is no favorite with Providence, for we are so formed that it is scarcely possible for us to stand neuter in our hearts, although we may deem it prudent to appear so in our actions. [ Colton ]
Powerful attachment will give a man spirit and confidence which he could by no means call up or command of himself; and in this mood he can do wonders which would not be possible to him without it. [ Matthew Arnold ]
It is so possible to be glad in the gladness of other people ; and, too, it is possible so to extend one's own life into higher regions that his happiness shall not be altogether dependent upon other people. [ Lilian Whiting ]
Thackeray and Balzac will make it possible for our descendants to live over again the England and France of today. Seen in this light, the novelist has a higher office than merely to amuse his contemporaries. [ P. G. Hamerton ]
The best manner of avenging ourselves is by not resembling him who has injured us; and it is hardly possible for one man to be more unlike another than he that forbears to avenge himself of wrong is to him who did the wrong. [ Jane Porter ]
In all societies, it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest; not that the highest are always the best, but because, if disgusted there, we can at any time descend; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible. [ Colton ]
No doubt every person is entitled to make and to think as much of himself as possible, only he ought not to worry others about this, for they have enough to do with and in themselves, if they too are to be of some account, both now and hereafter. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
It is not the reading of many books which is necessary to make a man wise or good, but the well-reading of a few, could he be sure to have the best. And it is not possible to read over many on the same subject without a great deal of loss of precious time. [ Richard Baxter ]
Not in a man's having no business with men, but in having no unjust business with them, and in having all manner of true and just business, can either his or their blessedness be found possible, and this waste world become, for both parties, a home and peopled garden. [ Carlyle ]
He that can keep handsomely within rules, and support the carriage of a companion to his mistress, is much more likely to prevail than he who lets her see the whole relish of his life depends upon her. If possible, therefore, divert your mistress rather than sigh for her. [ Steele ]
There are few thoughts likely to come across ordinary men which have not already been expressed by greater men in the best possible way; and it is a wiser, more generous, more noble thing to remember and point out the perfect words than to invent poorer ones, wherewith to encumber temporarily the world. [ John Ruskin ]
Wherein is it possible for us, wicked and impious creatures, to be justified, except in the only Son of God? O sweet reconciliation! O untraceable ministry! O unlooked-for blessing! that the wickedness of many should be hidden in one godly and righteous man, and the righteousness of one justify a host of sinners! [ Justin Martyr ]
Every common dauber writes rascal and villain under his pictures, because the pictures themselves have neither character nor resemblance. But the works of a master require no index. His features and coloring are taken from nature. The impression they make is immediate and uniform; nor is it possible to mistake his characters. [ Junius ]
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. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else. [ Ruskin ]
He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously; who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them. [ Washington Irving ]
Many a good intention dies from inattention. If, through carelessness or indolence, or selfishness, a good intention is not put into effect, we have lost an opportunity, demoralized ourselves, and stolen from the pile of possible good. To be born and not fed, is to perish. To launch a ship and neglect it is to lose it. To have a talent and bury it, is to be a wicked and slothful servant. For in the end we shall be judged, not alone by what we have done, but by what we could have done. [ Maltbie Babcock ]
My method has been simply this - to think well on the subject which I had to deal with and when thoroughly impressed with it and acquainted with it in all its details, to write away without stopping to choose a word, leaving a blank where I was at a loss for it; to express myself as simply as possible in vernacular English, and afterwards to go through what I had written, striking out all redundancies, and substituting, when possible, simpler and more English words for those I might have written. I found that by following this method I could generally reduce very considerably in length what I had put on paper without sacrificing anything of importance or rendering myself less intelligible. [ Sir Austen Henry Layard, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]