Top 100 Cannot Be Done Quotes
#1. Being used now, in order to force slavery on to Kansas; for it cannot be done in any other way. [Sensation.] The
Abraham Lincoln
#2. This is the nature of love." Vashet said. "To attempt to describe it will drive a woman mad. This is what keeps poets scribbling endlessly away. If one could pin it to paper all complete, the others would lay down their pens. But it cannot be done.
Patrick Rothfuss
#3. It is the sort of suffering that cannot be done justice with words. I can say only this - that I suspect it is an anguish from which one never recovers. A walking death.
Seth Grahame-Smith
#4. Writing cannot be done in a state of desirelessness,
Janet Malcolm
#5. It cannot be done all at once. To overpower vertigo - the keeper of the abyss- one must tame it, cautiously.
Philippe Petit
#6. Officers have been trying for hundreds of years to outsmart soldiers and have still not learned that it cannot be done. We can always count on the native ingenuity of the American GI to save us from ourselves, and to win wars.
Colin Powell
#7. Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies exist now - solar, wind - for every important energy-using activity in our lives. The only human work that cannot be done without oil is war.
Grace Paley
#8. The work cannot be done without those who are willing to go out.
Ross Paterson
#9. In these days, a man who says a thing cannot be done, quite apt to be interrupted by some idiot doing it.
Elbert Hubbard
#10. We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year's supply. You don't argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organize and get it done.
Spencer W. Kimball
#11. Those who say it cannot be done should not get in the way of those doing it.
Richard Whittle
#12. Love: that which cannot be done without; wish always to be with, be part of, belong to, know intimately inside and out, entirely, WHOLE-LY, for ever and ever amen.
Shining bright words in amazing patterns of endless variety. Drawing of the inside of my head.
pg. 108
Aidan Chambers
#13. If someone tells you something cannot be done;
it's just their way of saying they cannot do it
Shayan Italia
#14. At all events, let no one claim that because an abuse cannot be done away with, without inconvenience to those who profit by it, what has been suffered to exist for a time should be allowed to exist forever.
Frederic Bastiat
#15. There's always been this hocus-pocus or magical, mystical thing associated with the making of film that sort of psyches people out and makes them think that this cannot be done; that this is a craft that cannot be learned.
Spike Lee
#16. Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.
James Fenton
#17. One travels to escape from it all, but that is the great illusion: It cannot be done, since one travels with one's mind.
Ella Maillart
#18. God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feelings, but only if it relies on the Word of God.
Martin Luther
#19. You need to realize there will always be beliefs that seek to limit and others that seek to stretch you to your highest potential. Just because you cannot see or do something, does not mean it is not there or cannot be done.
Archibald Marwizi
#20. It's not records I chase, it's self-improvement. And that cannot be done by taking it easy.
Chrissie Wellington
#21. To succeed in the digital realm, technology has to provide a strong disruptive element right from the start. If things cannot be done differently , a transition to digital is not going to be compelling enough for a wide enough adoption to create sustainability.
David Amerland
#22. A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. By contrast, a woman's presence ... defines what can and cannot be done to her.
John Berger
#23. There is nothing the state can do, and which society needs done, that cannot be done far better by the market.
Llewellyn Rockwell
#24. Healing cannot be done by settling a score.
Alice Walker
#27. Love is a delicate plant that needs constant tending and nurturing, and this cannot be done by snorting at the adored object like a gas explosion and calling her friends lice.
P.G. Wodehouse
#28. After Proust, there are certain things that simply cannot be done again. He marks off for you the boundaries of your talent.
Francoise Sagan
#29. One of the main weaknesses of mankind is the average man's familiarity with the word "impossible." He knows all the rules which will NOT work. He knows all the things which CANNOT be done.
Napoleon Hill
#30. Love, Miss Halliday, is a delicate plant. It needs tending, nurturing, assiduous fostering. This cannot be done by throwing the breakfast bacon at a husband's head.
P.G. Wodehouse
#31. There is no task in life that cannot be done for God's glory.
Tim Challies
#32. By being impatient, matters are damaged and great works cannot be done
Yamamoto Tsunetomo
#33. Once you've been first, it cannot be done again. Not by you, not by anyone else.
Buzz Aldrin
#34. Mister Lipwig, the world lives between those who say it cannot be done and those who say that it can. And in my experience, those who say that it can be done are usually telling the truth. It's just a matter of thinking creatively.
Terry Pratchett
#35. In a democracy, the one thing that cannot be done is to destroy its trust, its hope, its idealism.
Teresa Heinz
#36. The world of A.D. 2014 will have few routine jobs that cannot be done better by some machine than by any human being. Mankind will therefore have become largely a race of machine tenders.
Isaac Asimov
#37. It is a mistake to say something cannot be done simply because you don't know how to do it.
Terry Goodkind
#38. God does not command what cannot be done, but admonishes us to do what is in our power, and to pray for what is not.
Matthew Henry
#39. I must frankly admit that ... I should probably lose all interest in life and would rather not be a German at all. But since, thank the Lord, this cannot be done, we have no need to be surprised that the health, unspoiled people avoid 'bourgeois mass meetings' as the devil holy water.
Adolf Hitler
#40. The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.
Arnold Palmer
#41. Remember: People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment.
David J. Schwartz
#42. It is not important what can or cannot be done. What is important is what people will or will not believe can be done.
Isaac Asimov
#43. You can say things which cannot be done. This is elementary. The trick is to keep attention focused on what is said and not on what can be done.
Frank Herbert
#44. We live of novelty in science. So when you do something new, you have to overcome certain beliefs that it cannot be done, that it's not interesting and so on.
Heinrich Rohrer
#45. People who claim something cannot be done should not get in the way of the ones who are doing it.
Melissa McPhail
#46. People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.
George Bernard Shaw
#47. Although this may be a most difficult thing, if one will do it, it can be done. There is nothing that one should suppose cannot be done.
Tsunetomo Yamamoto
#48. A common misconception about how things such as space shuttles come to be is that engineers simply apply the theories and equations of science. But this cannot be done until the new thing-to-be is conceived in the engineer's mind's eye. Rather than following from science, engineered things lead it.
Henry Petroski
#49. A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident often conceals whatever lessons or caveats it might hold for the next generation of engineers.
Henry Petroski
#50. All candidate moves should be identified at once and listed in one's head. This job cannot be done piecemeal, by first examining one move and then look at another.
Alexander Kotov
#51. What can not be overcome in prayer? Answer me! What cannot be done by the hand of the Almighty? Answer me! What can be done by your feeble arms!? ANSWER ME! He can take down the iron curtain in a day, He CAN convert a nation in an hour. Call upon Him, believe Him.
Paul Washer
#52. Progress in every age results only from the fact that there are some men and women who refuse to believe that what they know to be right cannot be done.
Russell Davenport
#53. Christianity is being compared with other religions as never before. Some so-called Christian leaders even advocate the working out of a system of morals, ethics, and religion that would bring together all the religions of the world. It cannot be done. Jesus Christ is unique.
Billy Graham
#54. You must dare to do the thing you think cannot be done ... as this is the only way to discover that there's nothing you can't do.
Guy Finley
#55. Pronouncement of experts to the effect that something cannot be done has always irritated me.
Leo Szilard
#56. That which is good to be done, cannot be done too soon; and if it is neglected to be done early, it will frequently happen that it will not be done at all.
Richard Mant
#57. But it cannot be done to you without your consent. If you permit it to be done, you you deserve it.
Ayn Rand
#58. One of the keys to success is an unflinching belief that there are no rules. Anyone who's ever succeeded has gone on that premise; not buying established procedures, business or otherwise. The naysayers are inevitably left behind amid shouts of 'it cannot be done' and "should not be done'."
Anton Szandor LaVey
#59. It doesn't matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it's important to realize that whatever you're doing, it's your first attempt at it.
Wally Amos
#60. Of course there is nothing that cannot be done incorrectly.
Joy Williams
#61. If something cannot be done to check, or at least to modify, our monstrous worship of facts, art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land.
Oscar Wilde
#62. Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.
Mark Twain
#63. Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very thing.
G. M. Trevelyan
#64. Striving for perfection is neurotic; striving for excellence is progress. Excellence is continuous improvement. There is nothing that cannot be done better or improved the next time.
Shiv Khera
#66. While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.
Helen Keller
#67. Without a reader, I cannot write. It's like a kiss: they cannot be done alone.
John Cheever
#68. What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.
Jane Austen
#69. Leaders receive and give assignments. This is an important part of the necessary principle of delegating. No one appreciates a willing volunteer more than I, but the total work cannot be done as the Lord wants it done merely by those doing the work who may be present at meetings.
James E. Faust
#70. I am less attracted to guesses about what cannot be done, than about making progress on a problem.
Patricia Churchland
#71. At Rome thing can or cannot be done when you are told anything cannot be done, there is an end of it."
"It is much more convenient at Paris; when anything cannot be done you pay double and it is done directly
Alexandre Dumas
#72. Art appreciation, like love, cannot be done by proxy: It is a very personal affair and is necessary to each individual.
Robert Henri
#73. Increased knowledge of heredity means increased power of control over the living thing, and as we come to understand more and more the architecture of the plant or animal we realize what can and what cannot be done towards modification or improvement.
Reginald Punnett
#74. There is no use trying to do Church work without love. A doctor, a lawyer, may do good work without love, but God's work cannot be done without love.
D.L. Moody
#75. We shall be forced to attempt planned and directed research employing hundreds of workers for many years, and this cannot be done without risking the loss of independence and originality. This is a serious and fundamental obstacle but it may be overcome in two ways.
John Desmond Bernal
#76. I think anything that requires real global breakthroughs requires a degree of intensity and sustained effort that cannot be done part time, so it's something you have to do around the clock, and that doesn't compute with our existing educational system.
Peter Thiel
#77. Don't let the fact you haven't done something before convince you that you can't do it, or that it cannot be done perfectly the first time you try your hand at it.
A.J. Darkholme
#78. There is no such thing as "healthy" competition within a knowledge organization; all internal competition is destructive. The nature of our work is that it cannot be done by any single person in isolation. Knowledge work is by definition collaborative.
Tom DeMarco
#79. Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. This cannot be done by mere acts of duty. It can be done only when spontaneous affections arise in the heart.
John Piper
#80. It is our view that stock-market timing cannot be done, with general success, unless the time to buy is related to an attractive price level, as measured by analytical standards. Similarly,
Benjamin Graham
#81. What good I thought I could do, all alone, against thousands of years of mistrust and the power of a Demonlord, I cannot now imagine: but such are the dreams of youth, too gloriously stupid to realise what cannot be done.
And without those dreams, how should we ever accomplish the impossible?
Elizabeth Kerner
#82. Don't allow people who say it cannot be done interrupt you while you are doing it.
Carlos Wallace
#83. To build character of purpose and integrity is our high mark, and that cannot be done in a world where there are no adverse elements.
Vance Havner
#84. It is idleness that creates impossibilities; and where people don't care to do anything, they shelter themselves under a permission that it cannot be done.
Robert South
#85. Back of ninety-nine out of one-hundred assertions that a thing cannot be done is nothing, but the unwillingness to do it.
William Feather
#86. The sanctity of prayer is needed to impregnate business. We need the spirit of Sunday carried over to Monday and continued until Saturday. But this cannot be done by prayerless men, but by men of prayer.
Edward McKendree Bounds
#87. If I steal money from any person, there may be no harm done from the mere transfer of possession; he may not feel the loss, or it may prevent him from using the money badly. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself dishonest.
William Kingdon Clifford
#88. You cannot escape so easily, Dragon. It is not done between us. It will not be done until the end of time.
Robert Jordan
#89. Motherhood cannot finally be delegated. Breast-feeding may succumb to the bottle; cuddling, fondling, and paediatric visits may also be done by fathers ... but when a child needs a mother to talk to, nobody else but a mother will do.
Erica Jong
#90. Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.
Niccolo Machiavelli
#91. This is my first term. I was told it was going to be an exciting term, and a lot of things would be done, and I cannot think about something more exciting than save Social Security.
Virginia Foxx
#92. And he began to understand what a wild game we play in life; he began to understand that a thing once done cannot be undone nor changed by saying I am sorry!
Robert Louis Stevenson
#93. The simple fact that something has not been done, is no proof that it cannot be.
Iain Pears
#94. Homo voluntatis cannot explain why some things that can be done should not be done.
George Weigel
#95. If we go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany - look, we saw it in Britain. Neville Chamberlain told the British people: Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.
Ted Cruz
#96. You cannot do everything by yourself, you need to learn how to delegate responsibility and trust people that everything will be done on time and with highest quality
Sunday Adelaja
#97. Ammi would give me no added particulars of this scene, but the shape in the comer does not reappear in his tale as a moving object. There are things which cannot be mentioned, and what is done in common humanity is sometimes cruelly judged by the law.
H.P. Lovecraft
#98. I cannot pretend that I regard this with favor, but the purpose of life is not to do what we want but what needs to be done. This is what fate demands of us.
- Oromis
Christopher Paolini
#99. We cannot eradicate global drug markets, but we can certainly regulate them as we have done with alcohol and tobacco markets. Drug abuse, alcoholism and tobacco should be treated as public health problems, not criminal justice issues.
Otto Perez Molina
#100. Grace does not make sense. It's not supposed to make sense. Grace cannot be calculated or formulated, earned or even rewarded for a job well done. Grace is a gift, not a salary.
Michelle DeRusha
