By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.
Taken
If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.
The immense cities lie basking on the beaches of the continent like whales that have taken to the land.
McGeorge Bundy was a brilliant man who’d had a meteoric academic career and was the youngest man ever to be dean of the Harvard faculty. But he was also arrogant and looked upon all sorts of people and politicians as not to be taken all that seriously.
Throughout the human experience people have read history because they felt that it was a pleasure and that it was in some way instructive. The profession of professor of history has taken it in a very different direction.
Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.
Polls are frequently taken to try to tease out or determine likely directions and trends, but once taken, they belong to the past, requiring that new polls be taken.
No notice is taken of a little evil, but when it increases it strikes the eye.
To rely upon conviction, devotion, and other excellent spiritual qualities; that is not to be taken seriously in politics.