Unthinkable Quotes

• A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Democracy, Politics

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• To achieve the impossible; it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.

  Tom Robbins

  Leadership, Positive Thinking, Perspective

  "Jitterbug Perfume". Book by Tom Robbins, 1984.

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

  Douglas Adams

  Badass, Philosophy, Thinking

  "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". Book by Douglas Adams, 1987.

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• We must care to think about the unthinkable things, because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.

  J. William Fulbright

  Science, Thinking, Care

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• We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world.

  J. William Fulbright

  Change, Thinking, World

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• Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable.

  Arthur Keith

  Believe, Special, Alternatives

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• At some time, often when we least expect it, we all have to face overwhelming challenges. When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we find it, we must cling to it with absolute determination. When we have hope, we discover powers within ourselves we may have never known- the power to make sacrifices, to endure, to heal, and to love. Once we choose hope, everything is possible.

  Christopher Reeve

  Determination, Sacrifice, Challenges

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• One of the extraordinary things about human events is that the unthinkable becomes thinkable.

  Salman Rushdie

  Events, Extraordinary Things, Humans

  Salman Rushdie, Michael Reder (2000). “Conversations with Salman Rushdie”, p.10, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• If you think about the unthinkable long enough it becomes quite reasonable.

  Josephine Tey

  Thinking, Long, Enough

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• Movement is life; without movement life is unthinkable.

  Moshe Feldenkrais

  Movement, Life Is

  Moshé Feldenkrais (1984). “The master moves”, Meta Pubns

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• If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable.

  Murray Bookchin

  Impossible, Petra, Solemn

  "The Ecology of Freedom". Book by Murray Bookchin, p. 107, 2005.

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• We must dare to think unthinkable thoughts.

  J. William Fulbright

  Positive Thinking, Alzheimer's, Dare

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• The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Love, Leaving, Impossible

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.13, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• There comes a time when the pain of continuing exceeds the pain of stopping. At that moment, a threshold is crossed. What seemed unthinkable becomes thinkable. Slowly, the realization emerges that the choice to continue what you have been doing is the choice to live in discomfort, and the choice to stop what you have been doing is the choice to breathe deeply and freely again. Once that realization has emerged, you can either honor it or ignore it, but you cannot forget it. What has become known can not become unknown again.

  Gary Zukav

  Spiritual, Pain, Knowledge

  Gary Zukav (2012). “Soul to Soul: Communications From the Heart”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

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• How many ideas have there been in the history of man which were unthinkable ten years before they appeared?

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Men, Years, Ideas

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• Thinking is trying to think the unthinkable: thinking the thinkable is not worth the effort.

  Helene Cixous

  Thinking, Effort, Decision

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• There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

  Samuel Butler

  Thinking, Absence

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

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• Exchanging blows generously, which is not uncommon in some other martial arts, is unthinkable in Shaolin philosophy, because a Shaolin disciple always assumes that an opponent is competent and able to inflict damage with just one blow.

  Wong Kiew Kit

  Art, Philosophy, Blow

  Wong Kiew Kit (2002). “The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu: The Secrets of Kung Fu for Self-Defense, Health, and Enlightenment”, p.73, Tuttle Publishing

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• Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.

  Lewis Mumford

  Needs, Development, Impossible

  "The Conduct Of Life". Book by Lewis Mumford. Chapter: "The Way and the Life", 1951.

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• It's unthinkable not to love - you'd have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you'd have to be Philip Larkin.

  Lawrence Durrell

  Love, Nervous, Breakdown

  The Observer Interview, 1990.

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• It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

  Andre Gide

  Honor, Age, Literature

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• We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.

  E. M. Forster

  Poverty, Poet, Poor

  Howards End Chapter 6

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• Dante can be understood only within the context of Italian thought, and Faust would be unthinkable if divorced from its German background; but both are part of our common cultural heritage.

  Gustav Stresemann

  Italian, Would Be, Heritage

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• I'm voting for Gore because the other is unthinkable. Which most of us will probably do. I hope all of us. I've always liked Ralph Nader and would like to see a real third party, but the thought of George Bush as president is unthinkable.

  Richard Gere

  Real, Party, Voting

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• Physical love is unthinkable without violence.

  Milan Kundera

  Relationship, Love Is, Violence

  "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Book by Milan Kundera, 1984.

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