And Jesus said unto them,Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St Matthew17:20.

Madame, si c'est possible, c'est fait; impossible? cela se fera. Madam, if a thing is possible, consider it done; the impossible? that will be done.

-Calonne, Charles Alexandre de
Quoted in  J Michelet Histoire de la Re¤  volution Fran c° aise (1847), vol.1, pt.2. This has been adapted as the slogan of the US army: 'The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.'

   Alice laughed.'There'sno usetrying,'shesaid: 'one can't believe impossible things.' 'I daresay 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.'

-Dodgson
Through the Looking-Glass, ch. 5,'Wool and Water'.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right.When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

-Clarke, SirArthur C(harles)
  Profiles of the Future.

Loving your neighbour as much as yourself is practically bloody impossible† You might as well have a commandment that states,'Thou shalt fly'.

-Cleese,John
  In The Times.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

-Doyle, SirArthur Conan
  The Sign of Four, ch.6.

I strongly wish for what I faintly hope: Like the day-dreams of melancholy men, I think and thinkon things impossible, Yet love to wander in that golden maze.

-Dryden,John
  The Rival Ladies, act 3, sc.1.

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.

-Faulkner,William Harrison
  On his generation of writers. Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
Of the playing of a famous violinist. Quoted in G B Hill Johnsonian Miscellanies, vol.2 (1784).

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

-Kennedy,John F(itzgerald)
  Speech to Latin  American diplomats,12 Mar.

Skiing is a battle against yourself, always to the frontiers of the impossible.But most of all, it must give you pleasure. It is not an obligation but a joy.

-Killy,Jean-Claude
  In Sports Illustrated,18 Nov.

Washington isa sieve†it was virtually impossibletofind out who was doing the leaking and shut them up.

-Reagan, Ronald Wilson
  Depositionon the Iran^Contra arms sales. In the NewYork Times, 23 Feb.

All my originality consists†in giving life in human fashion to beings which are impossible according to the laws of possibility.

-Redon, Odilon
Quoted in Edward Lucie-Smith Symbolist Art (1972).

   It is impossible to repeat in one period what was done in another.The pointof view isnotthesame, anymorethan are the tools, the ideals, the needs, or the painters' techniques.

-Renoir, Pierre Auguste
From Renoir's notebook, quoted in L Nochlin Impressionism and Post-Impressionism1874^1904 (1966).

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it soundslike.It isimpossible foran Englishmanto openhis mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  Pygmalion, Preface.

Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth in the most ridiculous and scornful sort that may be, so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one.

-Sidney, Sir Philip
  The Defence of Poetry.

Thinking precisely and systematically about something as complex and irregular as a modern economy is very difficult, maybe impossible.

-Solow, Robert M
  In the NewYorkTimes Book Review, 30 Dec.

A good writer always works at the impossible.

-Steinbeck,John Ernest
Recalled on his death, 20 Dec1968.

Certum est quia impossibile est. It is certain because it is impossible.

-Tertullian full name  Quintus SeptimiusFlorensTertullianus
De Carne Christi, ch.5.The phrase is commonly rendered'It is so extraordinary that it must be true.'