Category: Quotables

Compliments

An amateur photographer was invited to dinner with friends and took along a few pictures to show the hostess. She looked at the photos and commented, “These are very good! You must have a good camera.”

He didn’t make any comment, but as he was leaving to go home he said, “That was a really delicious meal! You must have some very good pots.”

The Ineffable

“Let’s think the unthinkable,
let’s do the undoable,
let’s prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself,
and see if we may not eff it after all. “

- Douglas Adams

My dad sent me the above Douglas Adams quote the other day. I thought it quite an appropriate variation on the theme of being a possibilitarian.

What’s Your Plan?

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
-Mary Oliver, poet

Mistakes

“Always make new mistakes.”

-Esther Dyson

Be an Optimist

“There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

-- Lewis Carroll

I just love Alice in Wonderland! It reminds us, among other things, how important it is to be optimistic. If you have an idea or vision, don’t start down the path toward the vision believing it is impossible. If you do, it will be impossible. The difference between what is possible and what is not is often only hindsight. Many people act as if only those things that have already been done are possible.