You see things and say ‘why?’
But I dream things that never were
And I say ‘why not?’

(Robert Kennedy’s slogan for his ill-fated campaign for the American presidency. Stole it from G B Shaw, who probably stole it from the Greek poet Aeschylus).

The impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does it.

Outstanding Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple, when a student at Rugby, was asked by a master when discussing an essay young Temple had written, ‘Are you not a little out of your depth here?’ Back came the confident reply, ‘Perhaps, Sir, but I can swim!’

Speaking of swimming, Mark Spitz went to the Mexican Olympics in 1968 a brash overconfident young kid predicting he’d win seven gold medals. He came home with two. But he had a fixed goal/dream. He trained for four more years, and next time set seven Olympic records, seven world records, and of course won seven gold medals.

St. Paul: ‘I can do all things [even fail?] though Christ who strengthens me.’

Jesus called it ‘faith which moves mountains’.

One part of the secret? Perseverance. Remember Edison’s 10,000 experiments with a storage battery? But he refused to admit failure (‘I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work’). His perseverance led to numerous life-enriching inventions, including the incandescent lamp, which Edison developed only after he had gone through thousands of dollars’ worth of fruitless experiments.

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
And looks to that alone:
Laughs at impossibilities,
And cries ‘it shall be done!’

But finally a little ‘corrective’: ‘Don’t bother about doing great things. Just do small things with great love’ [Mother Teresa]

– Charles Wesley.