Impasse Quotes

• Patience is, in and of itself, a great challenge and it often holds the key to breaking through a seeming impasse.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  Attitude, Keys, Challenges

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• Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.

  Heraclitus

  Life, Way, Unforeseen

  Heraclitus (2003). “Fragments”, p.20, Penguin

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• Unless you know the mountains and the forests, the defiles and impasses, the lay of the marshes and swamps, you cannot maneuver with an armed force. Unless you use local guides, you cannot get the advantages of the land.

  Sun Tzu

  Art, War, Land

  Sun Tzu (2005). “The Art of War”, p.121, Shambhala Publications

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• Those who have come to an impasse should examine their original intentions; those who have succeeded should note where they are heading.

  Zicheng Hong

  Taoism, Intention, Notes

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• When negotiations are at an impasse, when States dig their heels in, it is time to 'undig' them in a spirit of compromise. We all need to unlearn the predator in us, unlearn discrimination, unlearn privilege.

  Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

  Needs, Predator, Privilege

  "From New York to World’s Conflict Zones, UN Marks International Day of Peace". news.un.org. September 21, 2012.

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• When some systems are stuck in a dangerous impasse, randomness and only randomness can unlock them and set them free.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Dangerous, Stuck, Randomness

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, p.102, Random House

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• Those who always have a sense of appreciation and gratitude never reach an impasse in life.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  Gratitude, Appreciation, Gratitude And Appreciation

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• There's that horrible-beautiful moment, that bitter-sweet impasse where you know that somebody is bullshitting you but they're doing it with such panache and conviction...no, it's because they say exactly what you want to hear, at that point in time.

  Irvine Welsh

  Beautiful, Sweet, Want

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• History is filled with tragic examples of wars that result from diplomatic impasse. Whether in our local communities or in international relations, the skillful use of our communicative capacities to negotiate and resolve differences is the first evidence of human wisdom.

  Daisaku Ikeda

  War, Differences, Community

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• King Hussein of Jordan dedicated his life - I witnessed it in his sleeping as well as waking hours - to trying to break through the impasses keeping people apart. He understood that the security and prosperity of any one of us in this world depends on the security and prosperity enjoyed by others. As Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In the Middle East, nothing could be more true.

  Queen Noor of Jordan

  Kings, Sleep, Break Through

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• The totalitarian attempt at global conquest and total domination has been the destructive way out of all impasses. Its victory may coincide with the destruction of humanity; wherever it has ruled, it has begun to destroy the essence of man.

  Hannah Arendt

  Men, Essence, Humanity

  Hannah Arendt (1973). “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, p.8, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The leap of faith is a strategic impasse that confronts every Christian in search of converts; and, as he sees the matter, there is no wrong way to become a Christian. It is the end that is importnat, not the means; it does not matter why you believe, so long as you believe. For the philosopher, in contrast, the paramount issue is the justification of belief, not the fact of belief itself.

  George H. Smith

  Christian, Believe, Mean

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• Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Hate, War

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

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• My tendency is to want to say to the person, "Do you understand why I feel this way?" I usually do say that. And sometimes it doesn't go well. By this I mean we hit an impasse again. Not that I need to hear exactly what I want to hear, but I need to know I am heard. Those moments make for a better friendship. But I can't let it go. For good or bad.

  Claudia Rankine

  Mean, Let It Go, Way

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• More people telling stories leads to more interesting perspectives in this world. I often think we wouldn't get to these political impasses if we had balance in storytelling.

  Reese Witherspoon

  Thinking, People, Interesting

  "Reese Witherspoon on How She's Shaking Up Hollywood, and Why She Feels Like Gloria Steinem Told Her to Do Legally Blonde". Interview With Jennifer Siebel Newsom, www.glamour.com. October 29, 2015.

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• Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse.

  Carl Jung

  Running, Dream, Attitude

  Carl Gustav Jung, Meredith Sabini (2002). “The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung”, p.188, North Atlantic Books

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• Whether game theory leads to clear-cut solutions, to vague solutions, or to impasses, it does achieve one thing. In bringing techniques of logical and mathematical analysis gives men an opportunity to bring conflicts up from the level of fights, where the intellect is beclouded by passions, to the level of games, where the intellect has a chance to operate.

  Anatol Rapoport

  Passion, Cutting, Fighting

  "The Use and Misuse of Game Theory". Scientific American, (p. 114), December 1962.

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• Mr. Bradley-Mr. Martin is two people because it is a statement of the impasse of dualistic universe which he has created, they have created. I think that any dualistic universe ends in Nova. Mr. Bradley-Mr. Martin is a kind of God. A God of stupidity, cowardice, ugliness.

  William S. Burroughs

  Thinking, Two, People

  William S. Burroughs (2001). “Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997”, Semiotext

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• So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days. One may be preoccupied with shopping and income tax returns and chance conversations, but the stream of the unconscious continues to flow undisturbed, solving problems, planning ahead: one sits down sterile and dispirited at the desk, and suddenly the words come as though from the air: the situations that seemed blocked in a hopeless impasse move forward: the work has been done while one slept or shopped or talked with friends.

  Graham Greene

  Moving Forward, Writing, Shopping

  Graham Greene (1974). “The end of the affair”, Vintage

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• Consider the impasse of a one-God universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He can't go anywhere, since He is already everywhere. He can't do anything, since the act of doing presupposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition. So, He has to create friction: War, Fear, Sickness, Death, to keep his dying show on the road.

  William S. Burroughs

  Powerful, War, Knowing

  "Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (A One God Universe)". Studio album by William S. Burroughs with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, September 28, 1993.

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• In my own work I am invested in art as a way to break through impasses, whether those impasses are personal, social, or political.

  Jill Soloway

  Art, Break Through, Political

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The word translated, koan, it means a problem. But it's a very special problem. And to strip it down to the way it works, you are given a problem which has no rational solution. There is a contradiction built into it. One standard - one is this is the sound of two hands clapping. What is the sound of one hand clapping? And so on. All right, so the first thing is that it brings your rational mind to an impasse.

  Huston Smith

  Mean, Hands, Two

  Source: www.npr.org

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• In presenting a mathematical argument the great thing is to give the educated reader the chance to catch on at once to the momentary point and take details for granted: two trivialities omitted can add up to an impasse). The unpractised writer, even after the dawn of a conscience, gives him no such chance; before he can spot the point he has to tease his way through a maze of symbols of which not the tiniest suffix can be skipped.

  John Edensor Littlewood

  Two, Giving, Add

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• Sometimes a scene works and acting is the easiest thing in the world and you don't have to do much of anything - just enjoy yourself and listen to the other actor. When it doesn't work, then every actor has different ways of dealing with the impasse. Sometimes you use memories from the past. Whatever. It depends from job to job.

  Viggo Mortensen

  Jobs, Memories, Past

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• One always, sooner or later, comes upon a city which is an image of one's inner cities. Fez is an image of my inner self. ... The layers of the city of Fez are like the layers and secrecies of the inner life. One needs a guide. ... There were in Fez, as in my life, streets which led nowhere, impasses which remained a mystery.

  Anais Nin

  Self, Cities, Needs

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