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We cannot all do everything.
 
[Non omnia possumus omnes.]

Virgil the Poet
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Eclogues [Eclogae, Bucolics, Pastorals], No. 8 “Pharmaceutria,” l. 63 (8.63) (42-38 BC) [tr. Mackail (1899)]
    (Source)

Invoking the Pierian Muses to finish the tale, after the singer has given the first half.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

All cannot all things do.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

We cannot all do all things.
[tr. Davidson (1854), Wilkins (1873), Greenough (1895), Day Lewis (1963), @sentantiq (2018)]

Scarce may all do everything.
[tr. Calverley (c. 1871)]

We are not equal all
To every theme.
[tr. Palmer (1883)]

All things are not possible to all.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

We cannot all do everything.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

We are not all sufficient for all things.
[tr. Mackail/Cardew (1908)]

No single singer touches all the chords.
[tr. Williams (1915)]

We cannot all succeed in every task.
[tr. Rieu (1949)]

For none of us all is skilful in all things.
[tr. Johnson (1960)]

We are not all capable of all things.
[tr. Kline (2001)]

 
Added on 8-Nov-23 | Last updated 8-Nov-23
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There is said to be hope for a sick man, as long as there is life.

[Aegroto dum anima est, spes esse dicitur.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 9, Letter 10 (9.10), sec. 3, l. 19 (18 Mar 49 BC) [tr. Shackleton Bailey (1968)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.: "A sick man is said to have hope, so long as he has breath." [tr. Winstedt (1913)]

Often paraphrased as: "While there is life there is hope" [Dum anima est, spes est.] See also Theocritus, "While there's life there’s hope, and only the dead have none" (Idyll #4, l. 42 [tr. Gow]).
 
Added on 31-Aug-20 | Last updated 11-Aug-22
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So it is not a matter of whether it is possible to attain Buddhahood, or if it is possible to make a tile a jewel. But just to work, just to live in this world with this understanding is the most important point, and that is our practice. That is true zazen.

Shunryū Suzuki (1905-1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Lecture in Los Altos, California (1 Sep 1967)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Jul-20 | Last updated 2-Jul-20
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A babe is nothing but a bundle of possibilities.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, “Children” (1887) [ed. William Drysdale]
    (Source)
 
Added on 28-Apr-20 | Last updated 28-Apr-20
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“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right—somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”

“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”

“Oh dear,” said Lucy.

“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me — what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Prince Caspian (1951)
 
Added on 6-Sep-16 | Last updated 6-Sep-16
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What was impossible yesterday is an accomplishment today — while tomorrow heralds the unbelievable.

Fansler - tomorrow - wist_info quote

Percival E. Fansler (1883-1937) American engineer, businessman, entrepreneur
Speech, First Scheduled Commercial Airline Flight, St. Petersburg, Florida (1 Jan 1914)
 
Added on 3-Dec-15 | Last updated 3-Dec-15
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Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try. For one thing we know beyond all doubt: Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says, “It can’t be done.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
You Learn By Living (1960)
 
Added on 22-Apr-15 | Last updated 22-Apr-15
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Studies themselves give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded by experience.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Studies,” Essays, No. 50 (1625)
    (Source)
 
Added on 20-Nov-14 | Last updated 25-Mar-22
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The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
A Woman of No Importance, Act 3 [Lord Illingworth] (1894)
    (Source)

See also Sohrab.
 
Added on 7-Jun-12 | Last updated 26-Oct-23
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A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. So long as a man is struggling with obstacles he has an excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when fortune removes them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks best, then comes the time of trial. There is but one right, and the possibilities of wrong are infinite.

T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist [Thomas Henry Huxley]
“Address on University Education,” opening ceremonies of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (12 Sep 1876)
    (Source)
 
Added on 27-Oct-11 | Last updated 3-Jun-22
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And thou wilt give thyself relief if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee.

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations, Book 2, #5 [tr. Long (1862)]
    (Source)

Usually modernized, "And you will give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to you," and the source of the more common (and mixed-message) reduction of this aphorism, "Do every act of your life as if it were your last."

Alternate translations:

Go about every action as thy last action, free from all vanity, all passionate and wilful aberration from reason, and from all hypocrisy, and self-love, and dislike of those things, which by the fates or appointment of God have happened unto thee.
[tr. Casaubon (1634), #2]

Perform every action as if it were your last; if your appetites and passions do not cross upon your reason; if you keep clear of rashness, and have nothing of insincerity and self-love to infect you, and do not complain of your destiny.
[tr. Zimmern (1887)]

Do each act as though it were your last, freed from every random aim, from wilful turning away from the directing Reason, from pretence, self-love and displeasure with what is allotted to you.
[tr. Farquharson (1944)]

Approach each action as though it were your last, dismissing the wayward thought, the emotional recoil from the commands of reason, the desire to create an impression, the admiration of self, the discontent with your lot.
[tr. Staniforth (1964)]

Perform every action in your life as if it were your last, putting aside all aimlessness and emotional resistance to the choices of reason, and all pretense, selfishness, and discontent with what has been allotted to you.
[tr. Needleman/Piazza (2008)]

 
Added on 12-May-04 | Last updated 19-Mar-21
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Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Nin - Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage - wist.info quote

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1941-06)
    (Source)

In her Diaries [ed. Stuhlmann (1969)].
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
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Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

William James (Will) Durant (1885-1981) American historian, teacher, philosopher
The Age of Faith, ch. 38 “The Age of Romance” (1950)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 13-Jul-23
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There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.

Ahmad Sohreb
Mirza Aḥmad Sohráb (1890-1958) Persian-American author, Baháʼí dissident
A Persian Rosary of Nineteen Pearls (1929)

I am unable to find an extant copy of Sohrab's book; despite his involvement with some of the early principals of the Baháʼí faith, he was eventually expelled from the group, and his writings, already marginally published, are now difficult to find. Even the publication dates of various editions of this work are unclear. But there are references to this quote being sourced there (1, 2, 3, 4).

This book should not be confused with the Persian Rosary (1257), a compendium of ethics by Persian poet Eddin Sadi.

Often misattributed to St. Augustine of Hippo, or referred to as being from an "ancient Persian Mass." There is no indication, though, that Sohrab borrowed the phrase from Oscar Wilde's similar statement.

 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 26-Oct-23
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