"Impossible" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... be attributed. Peter had awakened fires that he could not quench, and aroused a spirit that he could not quell. In this respect, he resembled most of those who, under the guise of reform, or revolution, in moments of doubt, set in motion a machine that is found impossible to control, when it is deemed expedient to check exaggeration by reason. Such is often the case with even well- intentioned leaders, who constantly are made to feel how much easier it is to light a conflagration, than to stay its ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper
... battle-field for the rival powers of France and Germany, and the lot of the people was oppression and humiliation. High independence of mind, one of the most valuable qualities in connection with historical research, was impossible under these circumstances, and yet, some of the Italian writers of this age exhibit genius, strength of character, and a conscientious sense of the sacred commission ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta
... delighted in the swell and subsidence of the rhythm, and the happily recurring rhyme. Nor was Clifford incapable of feeling the sentiment of poetry,—not, perhaps, where it was highest or deepest, but where it was most flitting and ethereal. It was impossible to foretell in what exquisite verse the awakening spell might lurk; but, on raising her eyes from the page to Clifford's face, Phoebe would be made aware, by the light breaking through it, that a more delicate intelligence than her own had caught a lambent flame from what she read. One glow ...
— The House of the Seven Gables • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... three at once—Charlie Sands said this was impossible, until he met Tufik. Aggie was fairly palpitant and Tish was smug, positively smug. As for me, I roused with a start to find myself ...
— Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... the Canaanite cities almost all preserved their autonomy; the Israelites had no chance against them wherever they had sufficient space to put into the field large bodies of infantry or to use their iron-bound chariots. Finding it therefore impossible to overcome them, the tribes were forced to remain cut off from each other in three isolated groups of unequal extent which they were powerless to connect: in the centre were Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan; in the south, Judah, Levi, and Simeon; while Issachar, Asher, ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 6 (of 12) • G. Maspero
... Selma, let us not renew that discussion. What you ask is impossible at present, but I shall remember that it is your wish, and when I begin my work at Benham the circumstances and surroundings may be such that I shall ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant
... not be expressed in figures, economic progress abroad and the possible effect of new scientific inventions—to be considered. Lastly there were the navy laws, which the Government was pledged to carry out. As for military disarmament, the Emperor and his advisers regard it as impossible, considering the unfavourable strategic situation of Germany in the midst of Europe, with exposed frontiers on ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw
... and then the other made a daring move which appeared to place his opponent in difficulties, but each time disaster was ingeniously evaded. A draw seemed the likeliest result until, suddenly, the Pope made a brilliant move which startled the onlookers. It was considered impossible now for ...
— Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends • Gertrude Landa
... families gave to their farms the same name. The Fourth of July was celebrated here at the school-house. There were forty-four children. I spoke to them of the independence of the United States of America, its founders, its Declaration of Independence, etc. For July and August it is impossible to have the day school; it is too hot, but I will continue the night school, D.V., at least for two or three nights a week. The Sunday-school will go on as usual—no vacation ...
— The American Missionary — Vol. 48, No. 10, October, 1894 • Various
... the attempt; and in very truth the veal was beyond all praise, and room was found for it, even though one would have supposed the feat impossible. ...
— Dead Souls • Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
... dear; I know the world very well. That is all. I suppose it is impossible for me to make you understand how I love you. It must seem incredible to you, in the magnificence of your strength and beautiful youth, that a man like me—an artificial man"—he laughed scornfully—"a creature ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford
... a good room to ourselves, with wine and good cake, and saw the show very well. In which it is impossible to relate the glory of this day, expressed in the clothes of them that rid, and their horses and horses clothes, among others, my Lord Sandwich's. Embroidery and diamonds were ordinary among them. The Knights of the Bath was ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... and likenesses, and idol worship generally. The Jews forebore painting and sculpture for many centuries because of that prohibition. Now everyone with a kodak breaks it. The growth of true religious feeling, as well as scientific thought, makes it impossible for civilized peoples to make images and worship them, as did those ingenious old Moabites and Midianites, Jebuzites ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman
... threat at personal dignity and worth. Obstructed love or passion and the feeling of "wrong," i. e., injury done that was not merited, that the personal conscience does not justify, furnish the most virulent types of hatred. "Love thine enemies" is still an impossible injunction for most men. ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson
... business in Bruneck on St. Thomas's Day, had been arrested by command of General Broussier, with orders that he should be shot if his son did not give himself up before three days. The son might have comforted himself with the thought that it would be impossible for the general to put so tyrannical a threat into execution, but the consciousness of his father in such danger conquered all other feelings. He immediately started for Bruneck, and gave himself up. His father was instantly ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII, No. 28. July, 1873. • Various
... term'd Aborigines; for to pretend to determine their Pedigree exactly, with the Time and Manner of seating this unknown World, to me seems as morally impossible, as it is naturally to account for the Complexion of their Bodies, and the Temper ...
— The Present State of Virginia • Hugh Jones
... "I may state that we are prepared to bring forward a large mass of scientific evidence—including a well-known man of science, the editor of Wisdom, a popular journal which takes all knowledge for its province—to prove that there is nothing physically impossible in the facts deposed to by this witness. He is at present suffering, as you see, from a serious accident caused by the very machine of which he speaks, and which can be exhibited, with a working ...
— The Mark Of Cain • Andrew Lang
... ON THE PAST.—To the mind incapable of using past experience, the future also would be impossible; for we can look forward into the future only by placing in its experiences the elements of which we have already known. The savage who has never seen the shining yellow metal does not dream of a heaven whose streets are paved with gold, but rather ...
— The Mind and Its Education • George Herbert Betts
... the streets of Madrid seems to be fire and water, bane and antidote. It would be impossible for so many match-venders to live anywhere else, in a city ten times the size of Madrid. On every block you will find a wandering merchant dolefully announcing paper and phosphorus,—the one to construct cigarettes and the other to light them. The matches are ...
— Castilian Days • John Hay
... a case of ascites, caused, as I was sure, by a tumor of the ovary. The lady, as almost all people do,—and I do not blame them for it,—dreaded even the thought of an operation, but she was finally compelled to have an operation or die. She filled so full that it was almost impossible for her to breathe. She went away from home in terrible shape, almost out of breath, and returned home a well woman and has remained so. Such cases formerly died. But not all cases of ascites can be cured by an operation, ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... She put her hand on the starter and glanced out, hoping to be able to back out and get away, but the road behind was blocked several deep with cars, and the crowd had closed in upon her and about her on every side. Retreat was impossible. However, she noticed with relief that the matter of being conspicuous need not trouble her. Nobody was looking her way. All eyes were turned in one direction, toward that straggling, determined line that wound up from ...
— The Search • Grace Livingston Hill
... It was impossible now to contemplate Marion Grimston's peril without a grave sense of the duties imposed by friendship. Some people might stand by and see a girl wreck her happiness by giving her heart to an unworthy suitor, but Miss van Tromp ...
— The Inner Shrine • Basil King
... year period of amnesia? Impossible! You're not more than twenty-five years old," ...
— Rebels of the Red Planet • Charles Louis Fontenay
... is the first and hardest lesson to be learned. Others are orphans, waifs, and strays cast up from the currents of village life. Uncared for, undernourished, with memories of a tragic childhood behind them, it is sometimes an impossible task to turn these little, old women back into normal children. But the largest number are children of teachers and catechists, pastors, and even college professors, who come from middle class homes, with ...
— Lighted to Lighten: The Hope of India • Alice B. Van Doren
... said. "If they had known that you were going to have a doctor to visit him, it would have been impossible." ...
— The Great Secret • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... impossible," continued this gentleman, "that I should assist in procuring Mr Arnott such a renovation? Is there no subaltern part I can perform to facilitate the project? for I will either hide or seek with any boy in the parish; and for a Q in the corner, ...
— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney
... their quite fresh graves thus empty: and—now one thinks of it—how few fallen trees, or even dead sticks, there are about. An English wood, if left to itself, would be cumbered with fallen timber; and one has heard of forests in North America, through which it is all but impossible to make way, so high are piled up, among the still- growing trees, dead logs in every stage of decay. Such a sight may be seen in Europe, among the high Silver-fir forests of the Pyrenees. How is it not so here? ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley
... side it was impossible to be anything but happy. After lunch they sallied out, and it would have been hard to choose the gayest of the three. Sir Harry's radiant good-temper seemed to gild the streets. He took the boys up to the Hoe and pointed out the war-ships; ...
— The Ship of Stars • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... have cut off all way of return now. Bumping down that step was one thing; getting back would be impossible." ...
— Jerry's Reward • Evelyn Snead Barnett
... dinner at about 2:30, and a light evening meal about 7, and no stimulants, or tea, or coffee at any time, he finds, as a matter of not invariable but general habit, that by half past 8 drowsiness becomes so dominant that it becomes almost impossible, and generally impracticable, to avoid falling asleep in his chair while attempting to read, even though ordinary conversation ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 492, June 6, 1885 • Various
... street, which was not eight feet wide, swarmed with smells impossible to define; but all at once the pleasantly pungent odour of Chinese incense drifted across the girl's face, and gratefully ...
— The Ragged Edge • Harold MacGrath
... que j'avois suivi la caravane. Ils me parurent tres-emerveilles de ce que j'avois pu passer; mais quand ils m'eurent demande ou j'allois, et que j'ajoutai que je retournois par terre en France vers mondit seigneur, ils me dirent que c'etoit chose impossible, et que, quand j'aurois mille vies, je les perdrois toutes. En consequence ils me proposerent de retourner en Cypre avec eux. Il y avoit dans l'ile deux galeres qui etoient venues y chercher la soeur de roi, accorde en mariage au fils de monseigneur de Savoie, [Footnote: Louis, fils d'Amedee ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt
... "How impossible to find any one in this crush!" Miss Winmarleigh said. There was a cackly tone in her voice, especially when raised above the din of the music, which was peculiarly irritating ...
— Beyond The Rocks - A Love Story • Elinor Glyn
... overpopulated section of Germany, and the population is overdriven; and the German everywhere is a dreamy creature compared with us, of less toughness of fibre either morally or physically, and no doubt, here and there, under-exercising and over-thinking make the world seem to be a mad place and impossible to live in. Indeed, it is no place to live in for the best of us if we take it, or ourselves, too seriously. The German army is an educated army, as is no other army in the world, and there are the diseases peculiar to education ...
— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier
... farm-house adjoining Seaside Park. So delighted were they with life by the water during the hot days of the summer that they determined thereafter to spend every summer on the very shore of Long Island Sound. Finding it impossible to prepare a house of their own in time for the next season, they spent the summer of 1868 in a new and handsome house which Mr. Barnum owned but which he had built for sale. In the fall of 1868, however, he purchased a large and beautiful grove of hickory trees adjoining ...
— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton
... the hundredth time suggested an idea to Dr. Poulain. Once introduce her into the old bachelor's quarters, and it would be easy by her means to establish Mme. Sauvage there as working housekeeper. It was quite impossible to present Mme. Sauvage herself, for the "nutcrackers" had grown suspicious of every one. Schmucke's refusal to admit Mlle. Remonencq had sufficiently opened Fraisier's eyes. Still, it seemed evident that Pons and Schmucke, being pious souls, would take any one recommended by the Abbe, ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... he descended into the level and wooded country that succeeded the mountain range; and that night he was obliged to encamp in a swampy place, near a stagnant lake, in which several alligators were swimming, and where the mosquitoes were so numerous that he found it absolutely impossible to sleep. At last, in despair, he sprang into the branches of the tree to which his hammock was slung and ascended to the top. Here, to his satisfaction, he found that there were scarcely any mosquitoes, while a cool breeze fanned his fevered brow; so he determined ...
— Martin Rattler • R.M. Ballantyne
... hopeless so long as we all start from different, and often utterly irreconcilable, standpoints and proceed along widely diverging roads. One or another may, indeed, arrive at the goal, but such unanimity of opinion as will lend to our criticism authoritative weight is, on such lines, impossible of achievement. ...
— From Ritual to Romance • Jessie L. Weston
... taking her to Dolly. She kept her eyes and ears open for any sight or sound that might make it easier to find Dolly, but she did not call out, since she felt that it was practically certain the gypsy had managed, in some manner, to make it impossible for poor Dolly to cry out, lest, in his absence, she alarm some passerby and so ...
— The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake - Bessie King in Summer Camp • Jane L. Stewart
... consequence to the whole, or if he knows that they are of consequence, and he neglects them, his neglect must be attributed to carelessness and indolence. Is there any other way in which his neglect can be explained? For surely, when it is impossible for him to take care of all, he is not negligent if he fails to attend to these things great or small, which a God or some inferior being might be wanting in strength or ...
— Laws • Plato
... all that Antoine said. Granger went over to where he sat and, from above his shoulder, gazed down upon the portrait. The face had in it so little that was tragic that it seemed impossible to realise that its owner should have encountered such a death. When the smile upon the painted lips seemed so fresh and imperishable, it seemed incredible that the lips themselves should be now ...
— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson
... with a slight return of hope. It seemed to him that the boss was wavering. Perhaps, now that he had actually handled the jewels, he would find it impossible to give them up. To Spike, a diamond necklace of cunning workmanship was merely the equivalent of so many "plunks"; but he knew that there were men, otherwise sane, who valued a ...
— The Intrusion of Jimmy • P. G. Wodehouse
... did not live in barracks, and it was practically impossible to get them together at that time of night, as they were scattered ...
— The Experiences of a Bandmaster • John Philip Sousa
... had expected from you," he said. "Yet it would be better if you did go. However, women and children first. We've made the rule, and we must make no exceptions, or it would be impossible to enforce it ...
— The Belgians to the Front • Colonel James Fiske
... it is next to impossible, for there are fifty or sixty different dialects spoken. There, offer to shake hands with him again. You two were always ...
— Nat the Naturalist - A Boy's Adventures in the Eastern Seas • G. Manville Fenn
... to conceal anything. The least tinge of concealment was wholly alien to that frank fresh nature. If her head-mistress asked her a point-blank question, she would not attempt to parry it, but would reply at once with a point blank answer. Still, her very views on the subject made it impossible for her to volunteer information unasked to any one. Here was a personal matter of the utmost privacy; a matter which concerned nobody on earth, save herself and Alan; a matter on which it was the grossest impertinence ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen
... was the echo of his greeting. Without more ado he stepped in. For a moment the sharpness of the contrast of light made it impossible for him to see anything; but presently he became used to the twilight of the interior, and looked about him curiously. It was his first acquaintance with a dugout, nor was he impressed with the comfort it displayed. The ...
— The Night Riders - A Romance of Early Montana • Ridgwell Cullum
... by filing, sawing or chiseling the ends, although this is not good practice because it is then impossible to give the desired upset and additional metal for the weld. This added thickness is called for by the fact that the metal burns away to a certain extent or turns to scale, which is removed ...
— Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting • Harold P. Manly
... the regimental commander, came down from his station on the deck and found it well-nigh impossible to get through the corridor ...
— The Delta of the Triple Elevens - The History of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery US Army, - American Expeditionary Forces • William Elmer Bachman
... going to marry some time, sir, I hope," said the Perpetual Curate, with more cheerfulness than he felt; "but not at the present moment. Of course we both know that is impossible. I should like you to come with me and see her before you leave Carlingford. She would like ...
— The Perpetual Curate • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant
... phrase, and began to look to Pompey as a convenient ally. He thought that he could control and guide him and use his popularity for moderate measures. Nay, even in his despair of the aristocracy, he began to regard as not impossible a coalition with Caesar. "You caution me about Pompey," he wrote to Atticus in the following July. "Do not suppose that I am attaching myself to him for my own protection; but the state of things is such, that if we two disagree the ...
— Caesar: A Sketch • James Anthony Froude
... I do, I would take her—whether you would let her go or not—no, forgive me—I should not speak so to you, who are the best of women—but you would consent, for you are so kind. But the thing is impossible. She would remember, and I should remember also, when our sons grew up and had to meet the world with the brand of our name upon their faces. Look at Rex. He is my best friend. Yesterday I learnt that he is my cousin. Even he has hidden his father's deeds under a common, meaningless ...
— Greifenstein • F. Marion Crawford
... Or, not improbably, it might once have been the pleasure-place of an opulent family; for there was the ruin of a marble fountain in the centre, sculptured with rare art, but so wofully shattered that it was impossible to trace the original design from the chaos of remaining fragments. The water, however, continued to gush and sparkle into the sunbeams as cheerfully as ever. A little gurgling sound ascended to the young man's window, and ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... finished according to the plans I have made," he said hoarsely. "I am going to think of it with a belfry spire roofed with red tiles and a clock in the tower, and I am going to think of the clock as pointing to the exact hour of noon. Do you all understand? It is impossible that this man should know of how I mean to build that spire and about the clock, because until this moment no one knew except myself. If he can show me that, I shall begin to believe that he is inspired by his master, the devil. Do ...
— Smith and the Pharaohs, and Other Tales • Henry Rider Haggard
... commodities. On the first establishment of the Dutch in India, they were very solicitous to have factories in this island, and accordingly fixed three, at the cities of Borneo, Sambas, and Succadanea; but they soon found it was impossible to have any dealings with the natives, who certainly are the basest, crudest, and most perfidious people in the world; wherefore they quitted the island, and though several times invited back, have absolutely refused ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr
... impossible—I sail for Clawbonny with the first of the flood, and that will make at four. I shall ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper
... odd. At home I am a democrat. A republic, a true republic, seems not improbable, a fighting dream. Yet beholding the back of the ears of a trotting man I perceive it to be impossible—the millennium another million years away. I grow insufferably superior and Anglo-Saxon. I am sorry, but what would you? One ...
— Profiles from China • Eunice Tietjens
... some incarnation, has seen fairies scampering over moor and hill and the remembrance of them teases her memory. Katherine is not so faithless as her ways might lead you to believe. Laura without dark eyes would be impossible, and her predestined Petrarch would never deliver his sonnets. Helen may be seen only against a background of Trojan wall. Gertrude must be tall and fair and ready with ballads in the winter twilight. Julia's reserve and discretion commend her to ...
— The Port of Missing Men • Meredith Nicholson
... lawless, it creates infidelity, nourishes incontinence; its seeming freedom is but slavery to passion, and this, too, the poet proclaims in Manru's confession that faithfulness is impossible to one to whom each new beauty offers irresistible allurement, and whose heart must remain ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel
... impossible to do otherwise. We can't go to work, for the life of us, if we wished to; we all feel that we have gone too far, and those, whose own consciences do not trouble them, are yet too much troubled by fear of the consequences to be in any ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms
... the fifties, when my first novels were written I take this extract:—"Queer that I who have such a distinct idea of what I approve in flesh-and-blood men should only achieve in pen and ink a set of impossible people, with an absurd muddy expression of gloom, instead of sublime depth as I intended. Men novelists' women are as impossible creations as my men, but there is this difference—their productions satisfy ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence
... China Clippers. My version is that of Capt. John Runciman, who belonged to that period. I have seldom found it known to sailors who took to the sea after the early seventies. The tune was sung in very free time and with great solemnity. It is almost impossible to reproduce in print the elusive subtlety of this haunting melody. In North-country ships the shantyman used to make much of the theme of a dead lover appearing in the night. There were seldom any rhymes, and the air was indescribably touching when ...
— The Shanty Book, Part I, Sailor Shanties • Richard Runciman Terry
... good hotel is a good stepmother. It is is not often that one has the opportunity to select his stepmother, but certainly it ought not to be impossible to make a ...
— Saratoga and How to See It • R. F. Dearborn
... knowledge she had acquired from the letter she had tampered with, that Sapps was being specially watched by the Police. How could she account for this knowledge, without full confession? And would not absolution be impossible? She could only fence with the cause of her confusion. "I got the idea on my mind, I expect," said she uneasily. "Didn't you say she ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan
... It is impossible to enjoy the reprinted editions, in their tiresome monotony of luxurious bindings, as delicately as one enjoyed these first flowers of the author's genius, dewy with his authentic blessing. I am myself proud to recall ...
— Suspended Judgments - Essays on Books and Sensations • John Cowper Powys
... Carleton was making preparations to enter the lakes, General Schuyler was using his utmost exertions to retain the command of them. But, so great was the difficulty of procuring workmen and materials, that he found it impossible to equip a fleet which would be equal to the exigency. It consisted of only fifteen small vessels; the largest of which was a schooner mounting twelve guns, carrying six and four pound balls. The command of this squadron, at ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 (of 5) • John Marshall
... that some part of his wrecked airship be saved, but it was impossible. There was little left that was worth anything, and Dick, by taking his uncle as an extra passenger, added enough weight as it was, so that no parts of the Larabee ...
— Dick Hamilton's Airship - or, A Young Millionaire in the Clouds • Howard R. Garis
... sent to Fanning to evacuate the fort and join us with six pieces of artillery. He received the order, and proceeded to execute it. But what might have been very practicable for eight hundred and sixty men, was impossible for three hundred and sixty. Nevertheless, Fanning began his march through the prairie. His little band was almost immediately surrounded by the enemy. After a gallant defence, which lasted twelve hours, they succeeded in reaching an island, but scarcely had they established themselves ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV. • Various
... Heriot remained seated, and there was a cordial good- humour added to the reverence of his appearance, which rendered it impossible for Lord Nigel to be more explicit ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott
... What else could I do? Obviously the suggested programme was impossible of completion in the time allotted; why then attempt it? I decided to obey orders: to reveille at 5.30, breakfast at 6.30, and then to start getting ready and continue doing so till called for. If the worst came to the worst, I should become a sick man and ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 2, 1914 • Various
... the expense that I object to, my dear; my business is so limited that it is impossible for us to live in any other than a plain, quiet way. The cost of a party would be ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various
... a certain indication of a well-managed or ill-managed household. Nothing is easier than to keep plate in good order, and yet many servants, from stupidity and ignorance, make it the greatest trouble of all things under their care. It should be remembered, that it is utterly impossible to make greasy silver take a polish; and that as spoons and forks in daily use are continually in contact with grease, they must require good washing in soap-and-water to remove it. Silver should be washed with a soapy flannel in one water, rinsed ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton
... Moreover, the new suit into which he was promptly clapped, though brilliant in colour, had been made for a smaller man, and obstructed his breathing, which would have been difficult enough in any case. On the gun-deck, where he found himself, it was impossible to stand upright and equally impossible to lie at length, every foot of room between the tiers of nine-pounders being occupied by kits, knapsacks, chests and mattresses littered about in all conceivable disorder, and the intervals ...
— The Blue Pavilions • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... It is impossible for us to comply with the request of the Town, signified to us this day by the committee, as we know not what terms the tea, if any part of it should be sent to our care, will come out on, and what obligations, either ...
— Tea Leaves • Various
... answered to the Queen of France," said Corny, "if it is possible, it shall be done; and if it is impossible, it must be done." ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth
... if it was right for me ever to have worn the dress of a Quaker, for I despised the very form in my heart, and have felt it a disgrace to have adopted it, so empty have the people seemed to me, and sometimes it has seemed impossible that I should ever be willing to join them. My heart has been full of rebellion, and I have even dared to think it hard that I should have to bear the burdens of a people I did not, could ...
— The Grimke Sisters - Sarah and Angelina Grimke: The First American Women Advocates of - Abolition and Woman's Rights • Catherine H. Birney
... cannot hold the scales even in a moral issue. It inevitably results in the triumph of evil, which asks nothing better than the even chance to which it is not entitled. When the trouble in the Police Board had reached a point where it seemed impossible not to understand that Roosevelt and his side were fighting a cold and treacherous conspiracy against the cause of good government, we had the spectacle of a Christian Endeavor Society inviting the man who had hatched the plot, the bitter and relentless enemy ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis
... after a long and trying afternoon spent in the squalid streets and slums of St Pancras and Islington. The goddess of Chance, bestowing her favours with true feminine caprice, had taken it into her wanton head, at the last moment, to accomplish for him the seemingly impossible feat of tracing the pawnbroker's marked shilling, through various dirty hands, to the pocket of the man who had pawned the pencil-case. Whether she would grant him the last favour of all, by enabling him to prove whether this man and Nepcote were identical, was a ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees
... all Ronald Earle's troubled life he never spent a more unsettled or wretched year than this. "It is impossible to paint," he said to himself, "when disturbed by crying babies." So the greater part of his time was spent away from home. Some hours of every day were passed with Valentine; he never stopped to ask himself what impulse led him to ...
— Dora Thorne • Charlotte M. Braeme
... scene would have lasted it is impossible to say; but at last, as it was growing irksome, there came a shout from the end ...
— Dick o' the Fens - A Tale of the Great East Swamp • George Manville Fenn
... ever was a fish,' said Tancred. 'Oh! but it is all proved; you must not argue on my rapid sketch; read the book. It is impossible to contradict anything in it. You understand, it is all science; it is not like those books in which one says one thing and another the contrary, and both may be wrong. Everything is proved: by geology, you know. You see exactly how everything ...
— Tancred - Or, The New Crusade • Benjamin Disraeli
... they had saved some American soldier, whether Tom or another, from a horrible death. Then, too, they had in their power the brute who had planned that death. It was not impossible, too, that, under further questioning of the lieutenant and his men at headquarters, more might be learned of what they wanted so ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall
... missionaries, the thirty-seven unmarried women and the 125 native workers and the entire missionary body, foreign and native, barely totals 300. How utterly inadequate is such a force in the presence of such vast needs! Because this situation has in it a call so apparent and so inexpressibly urgent it is impossible to ...
— Brazilian Sketches • T. B. Ray
... the stable with a bridle prepared for the purpose, and a heavily-loaded whip in my hand. I knew that it would be impossible to saddle him; and, indeed, I should be safer on his bare back, in the event of his throwing himself down. I opened the stable-door gently, and there he was prone on his side, his legs and neck stretched out, as I have often seen horses lying after sore fatigue. I clapped my ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 435 - Volume 17, New Series, May 1, 1852 • Various
... therefore, to prevent this; and we placed ourselves to defend the lower or second narrowing of the channel. We knew that below that point beetling cliffs walled in the stream on both sides, so that it would be impossible for them to ascend out of its bed. If we could restrain them from making a rush at the shelving bank, we would have them penned up from any farther advance. They could only flank our position by returning to the valley, and going about by the western end, ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid
... who had on a pair of warm gloves, and he said to himself, "Music is impossible when one's fingers are frozen. I believe I should be the happiest man alive if ...
— English Fairy Tales • Flora Annie Steel
... "Impossible! She is a woman, she has eyes, she will see you as I see you. More than that, I have told her ...
— The Net • Rex Beach
... from the view of the Public, with a design perhaps to conceal the falsehood of them the discovery of which would have prevented their having any mischievous effects. This is the Game which we have reason to believe they are now playing; With so much Secrecy as may render it impossible for us fully to detect them on this Side of the Water; How deplorable then must be our Condition, if ample Credit is to be given to their Testimonies against us, by the Government at home, and if the Names ...
— The Writings of Samuel Adams, volume II (1770 - 1773) - collected and edited by Harry Alonso Cushing • Samuel Adams
... of one piece. His trust, where he trusts, is absolute. Hesitation is almost impossible to him. He is extremely self-reliant, and decides and acts instantaneously. If stirred to indignation, as 'in Aleppo once,' he answers with one lightning stroke. Love, if he loves, must be to him the heaven where either ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley
... rather suggested a lawyer or a clergyman. His eccentricity was a combination of absent-mindedness and irritability. The latter failing, he told me, would at times take complete control of him: for instance, he had to leave a train before his journey was completed, as he felt it impossible to sit in the carriage and look at the alarm bell without pulling it. I have watched him seated in the smoking-room of the club we both attended, in which the star-light in the centre of the ceiling was shaded by a ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... our expedition has not been entirely successful. I am very much afraid that it will be impossible to grow watercresses at this altitude, even with the genial aid of orchid-forcing houses. I do not see how we could get up the necessary materials to the summit, although assisted by proposed railway. Still, when the line is constructed, we ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, August 13, 1892 • Various
... breakfast time. He then took the light from the servant-maid's hand, and advanced to my guide, who awaited his scrutiny with great calmness, seated on the table. "Eh! oh! ah!" exclaimed the Bailie. "My conscience! it's impossible! and yet, no! Conscience, it canna be. Ye robber! ye cateran! born devil that ye are—can this ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... matter of fact, Madero himself, far from overstating the benefits of the revolution led by him or making unwise promises of a Utopia impossible of realization, addressed these words to the Mexican people at the close of that conflict: "You have won your political freedom, but do not therefore suppose that your economic and social liberty can be won so suddenly. This can only be attained by ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 21 - The Recent Days (1910-1914) • Charles F. Horne, Editor
... reversion of the chancellorship. With this expectation he not only patronised but warmly supported the whig ministry in 1835. But his wayward and petulant egotism had set all his old colleagues against him, and Melbourne had made up his mind that "it was impossible to act with him". The interruption of legal business caused by the constant withdrawal of three judges from their proper duties, to act as commissioners, was severely criticised by the press, and Sir Edward Sugden, who had been lord chancellor of Ireland under Peel, published ...
— The Political History of England - Vol XI - From Addington's Administration to the close of William - IV.'s Reign (1801-1837) • George Brodrick
... feeling of panic. He could see the air literally filled with bursting shrapnel, while red-hot bullets from machine-guns swept the earth as clean as a scythe goes through the ripening wheat. Man simply could not endure in a hell like that! It was utterly impossible! ...
— Where the Souls of Men are Calling • Credo Harris
... high quarters, or his subtle arts, he escaped the fangs of the law. Tradition says that upon a certain occasion, being embarrassed by evil spirits, he undertook to find the wicked ones constant employment. Not a few strange feats were gone through, which Scott thought were impossible for Satan himself to perform. Nevertheless, they were done. One day, the spirits demanded more work; and the wizard ordered that a dam-head should be built across the Tweed at Kelso, to prevent the flow of the river. Next morning the work was found completed. More work was ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant
... deign to do anything you suggest, good master Blackamoor," he answered, but to his heart he whispered that it was better to humour these strange satellites whose persons he found it impossible to reconcile with any memories of the real world as he knew it. The ...
— If I Were King • Justin Huntly McCarthy
... topmast cross-trees, I had actually forgiven him. It has been my failing through life, as Shakespeare expresses it, "to have always lacked gall." God knows how much I have forgiven, merely because I have found it impossible to hate. ...
— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard
... at the bottom, and in a moment a score of smaller letters were tumbling about my feet. In vain did Jimmy entreat me to let him gather them up. I helped, and saw, to my bewilderment, that all the letters were addressed in childish hands to "Uncle Jim, care of Editor of Mothers Pets." It was impossible that Jimmy could have so ...
— My Lady Nicotine - A Study in Smoke • J. M. Barrie
... limpid voice; he examined that face so purely white, resembling those of the cold, grave women of Holland whom the Flemish painters have so wonderfully reproduced with their smooth skins, in which a wrinkle is impossible. ...
— The Brotherhood of Consolation • Honore de Balzac
... he love her? 'Curious fool, be still; is human love the growth of human will?' saith the poet. So, god-mother dear, for aught we can say, they must e'en join the legion of impossible unions. But we are both weary, and had best to bed and sleep ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny
... they knew not how to act. They had never dreamed for a moment that the Count could bestow a thought on their daughter; but such was the case—he loved and was beloved. The pride of the mother might not have led her to consider such an alliance quite impossible, but so extravagant an idea had never entered the contemplation of the sounder judgment of the old man. Both were satisfied of the sincerity of my love, and could but put up prayers to Heaven for the happiness of ...
— Peter Schlemihl etc. • Chamisso et. al.
... the man whom Moore seriously advised Byron to avoid, lest his religious theories should undermine the immaculate morality of the author of Don Juan! It is to be supposed that Moore wrote in earnestness of spirit, yet it is impossible not to smile in wonderment at this letter. Moore doubtless had greater belief in salvation by faith than by works. "Ah, Moore was a superstitious dog!" exclaimed Landor one day. "I was once walking with him in a garden," (I forget in what part of ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 • Various
... stipulated that payment must be made in advance. To this I agreed willingly. And then—I waited, waited. It was tedious, but after all, the tediousness didn't matter much when I came to think of it. It would be impossible to do the thing I had made up my mind ...
— The Powers and Maxine • Charles Norris Williamson
... State have not availed themselves to any extent of their new right to vote, and, therefore, the measure has not forwarded the cause of general suffrage. In fact, the school-committee question is not a vital one with either male or female voters, and it is impossible to get up any enthusiasm on the subject. As a test question upon which to try the desire of the women of the State to become voters, it is a palpable sham. Our Revolutionary fathers would not have fought, bled and died for such a figment ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various
... Indian toward European standards of civilization; his indifference to material possessions; his unwillingness to part with the land; and his refusal to work, made it impossible to "assimilate" him, as other peoples were assimilated, into colonial society. The individual Indian would not demean himself by becoming a cog in the white man's machine. He preferred to live and die in the open air of ...
— The American Empire • Scott Nearing
... of his achievement is impossible within the limits of the few pages that are all a book like this can spare to a single author. Readers who desire it will find it in the work of his two best critics, Mark Pattison and Sir Walter Raleigh.[4] All that can be done here is to call attention to ...
— English Literature: Modern - Home University Library Of Modern Knowledge • G. H. Mair
... There are, it is true, passages, though comparatively speaking very few, where his poetry exceeds the bounds of actual dialogue, where a too soaring imagination, a too luxuriant wit, rendered a complete dramatic forgetfulness of himself impossible. With this exception, the censure originated in a fanciless way of thinking, to which everything appears unnatural that does not consort with its own tame insipidity. Hence an idea has been formed of simple and natural pathos, which consists in exclamations destitute ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... Brandon's hand flashed to a switch and the beam expired. "But they can't just simply grab it and store it, Quince—it's impossible!" ...
— Spacehounds of IPC • Edward Elmer Smith
... and I dined with Mr. Scarlett, and met ... who said if the Grand Duke had not been the most foolish and obstinately weak man in the world, he might still have been on the throne of Tuscany; but that now he has made that impossible by going to Vienna and allowing his two sons to enter the Austrian army.... We have had a visit from Dr. Falconer, his two nieces and brother. They had been spending the winter in Sicily, where he discovered ...
— Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville • Mary Somerville
... impulse to kill a man. It was natural, elemental and all but overpowering. Remember that civilisation itself is impossible without tradition. I know that progress is made only by its modification in growth. But growth is not destruction, and progress is never backward to beast or savage. Marriage is not a mere convention between a man and a woman, subject to the whim ...
— The One Woman • Thomas Dixon
... driven into one's face by the furious sweep of the hurricane, cut and stung like the lash of a whip. The schooner, being but a small craft, too, was extraordinarily lively; leaping and plunging, rolling and pitching to such an extent and with so quick a motion that it was quite impossible to keep one's footing without holding on to something; while to secure a meal demanded a series of feats of dexterity that would have turned a professional acrobat green with envy. And all this discomfort was emphasised, as it were, by the yelling and hooting and shrieking ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood
... all manage?" asked Savinien one day, at the end of a gay breakfast with a knot of young dandies, with whom he was intimate as the young men of the present day are intimate with each other, all aiming for the same thing and all claiming an impossible equality. "You were no richer than I and yet you get along without anxiety; you contrive to maintain yourselves, while as for me I ...
— Ursula • Honore de Balzac
... four days before zero," he writes, "were known as 'W,' 'X,' 'Y,' and 'Z' days. By 'W' every enemy observation balloon had been destroyed and so dense a fleet of aircraft patrolled the battle area as to make it impossible for the enemy aircraft to approach the lines. Thus the enemy was made blind. On the night of 'W' we got orders to move forward. Before leaving the billet we made a large bonfire with boxes from the C.Q.M.'s stores. On this we burned all our letters, and round it we had ...
— The Seventeenth Highland Light Infantry (Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Battalion) - Record of War Service, 1914-1918 • Various |
