Unattainable Quotes

• Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.

  Haim Ginott

  Appreciation, Teacher, Teaching

  "Teacher and child". Book by Haim Ginott, 1972.

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• Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Giving, Perfection, Laziness

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Eugenia Stanhope (1827). “Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son”, p.185

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• To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness.

  Emile Durkheim

  Goal, Definitions, Unhappiness

  John A. Spaulding, George Simpson, Emile Durkheim (2010). “Suicide”, p.248, Simon and Schuster

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• In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.

  William Osler

  Broken Heart, Broken Promises, Aim

  William Osler (1927). “Aequanimitas”, p.5, Ravenio Books

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  One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

  Dorothea Lange

  Photography, Reality, Cameras

  Anne Whiston Spirn, Dorothea Lange (2009). “Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field”, University Of Chicago Press

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• When you're obsessive, like me, searching for something unattainable can become unhealthy ... it's like falling through the air and grabbing at the clouds.

  Jonny Wilkinson

  Fall, Clouds, Air

  "Jonny Wilkinson made all England feel wonderful: we will never forget" by Robert Kitson, www.theguardian.com. December 12, 2011.

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• Perfect is unattainable. Better is possible.

  Barack Obama

  Perfect

  "President Barack Obama Holds a News Conference", ye.usembassy.gov. November 14, 2016.

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• The impossible exists only until we find a way to make it possible

  Mike Horn

  Inspirational, Optimistic, Way

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• The contemplation of beauty, whether it be a uniquely tinted sunset, a radiant face, or a work of art, makes us glance back unwittingly at our personal past and juxtapose ourselves and our inner being with the utterly unattainable beauty revealed to us.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Art, Sunset, Past

  Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov”, p.97, Vintage

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• America has been a land of dreams. A land where the aspirations of people from countries cluttered with rich, cumbersome, aristocratic, ideological pasts can reach for what once seemed unattainable. Here they have tried to make dreams come true. Yet now... we are threatened by a new and particularly American menace. It is not the menace of class war, of ideology, of poverty, of disease, of illiteracy, or demagoguery, or of tyranny, though these now plague most of the world. It is the menace of unreality.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Dream, Country, War

  Daniel J. Boorstin (1962). “The Image or What Happened to the American Dream”

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• Nagging questions remain: Where is the line between making the most of one's potential and reaching for the unattainable? Where is the line between education as a tool and education as a kind of magic? The line is blurred and that is why when education fails, disillusionment is so bitter.

  Henry Anatole Grunwald

  Education, Teaching, Failure

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• Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors.

  Aldous Huxley

  Truth, Mistake, Men

  Aldous Huxley (2000). “Complete Essays: 1926-1929”, Ivan R Dee

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• I tell my students to try early in life to find an unattainable objective.

  George Wald

  Trying, Students, Objectives

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• It's one of those dreams I thought would be unattainable for someone like me, who came from nowhere.

  Samantha Barks

  Dream, Would Be, Like Me

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• The good God would not inspire unattainable desires.

  Therese of Lisieux

  Inspire, Desire, Good God

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• Don't strive for somebody else's notion of perfection. It's an unattainable and ultimately ridiculous goal. Strive instead to be uniquely yourself and when in doubt listen to your gut, because it already knows what you want to become.

  Meredith Vieira

  Goal, Perfection, Doubt

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• Perfection is an unattainable goal. It isn't going to be perfect. Just get words down on paper, and when you stumble to what you think is the end of the book, you will have hundreds of pages of words that came out of your head. It may not be perfect, but it looks like a book.

  Laurell K. Hamilton

  Book, Writing, Thinking

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• The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.

  Irving Howe

  Innocence, Cherish

  Irving Howe (1975). “The critical point, on literature and culture”

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• The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection -even though nothing more than the pounding of an old piano -is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Life, Stars, Piano

  "Afterthoughts". Book by Logan Pearsall Smith, 1931.

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• Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian - ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.

  Lytton Strachey

  Art, Ignorance, Perfection

  Eminent Victorians preface (1918)

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• The dog and the rabbit are telling us not to chase unattainable material goals.

  Kit Williams

  Dog, Goal, Rabbits

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• An adventure differs from a mere feat in that it is tied to the externally unattainable. Only one end of the rope is in the hand, the other is not visible, and neither prayers, nor daring, nor reason can shake it free.

  William Bolitho

  Prayer, Adventure, Hands

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• I have a tendency to run after people who are completely unattainable and uninterested and make a complete fool of myself.

  Martha Wainwright

  Running, People, Fool

  "Formerly Known as What's-His-Name's Sister" by Daphne Merkin, www.elle.com. April 20, 2011.

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• The possible has been tried and failed. Now it's time to try the impossible.

  Sun Ra

  African American, Trying, Musician

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• Certainty is an unrealistic and unattainable ideal

  William Lane Craig

  Certainty, Ideals

  J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig (2009). “Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview”, p.58, InterVarsity Press

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