Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Impossible
A thing cannot be at the same time both true and false.Chinese.
A thousand men cannot undress a naked man.Modern Greek.
A toad propping a bed-post firmly.Chinese.
I cannot run and sit still at the same time.
I cannot sell the cow and have the milk.Scotch.
I cannot spin and weave at the same time.
It is always the impossible that happens.French.
Nae man can baith sup an’ blaw thegither.
Nae man can make his ain hap.
No man can at the same time fill his cup from the source and the mouth of the Nile.Dr. Johnson.
No one can be caught in places he does not visit.Danish.
No one can blow and swallow at the same time.German.
No one is bound to do impossibilities.French, Italian.
Not even a thousand men in armor can strip a naked man.Turkish.
Nothing is impossible to pains and patience.Ray.
One actor cannot perform a play.Chinese.
One cannot be and have been.French.
One cannot be both old and young at the same time.German.
One cannot be in two places at once.
One cannot drink and whistle at the same time.Italian.
One cannot ring the bells and walk in the procession.French.
One cannot shear a naked sheep.
One cannot wash a blackamoor white.German.
One can’t shoe a running horse.Dutch.
One foot cannot stand on two boats.Chinese.
That which has been eaten out of the pot cannot be put into the dish.Danish.
The water that comes from the same spring cannot be both pure and salt.
The wonderful and impossible have collided.African.
There is no stripping a naked man.German.
To believe a business impossible is the way to make it so.
You cannot clap with one hand.Chinese.
You cannot coax de mornin’-glory to clime de wrong way roun’ de corn stalk.African American.
You cannot damage a wrecked ship.Italian.
You cannot draw blood from a turnip.Italian.
You cannot draw wine out of an empty cask.German.
You cannot drive a wind-mill with a pair of bellows.
You cannot get oil out of a wall.
You cannot make a hawk of a buzzard.French.
You cannot make a sieve of an ass’s tail.German.
You cannot make a silk purse of a sow’s ear.
You cannot make an ass drink if he is not thirsty.French.
You cannot make velvet of a sow’s ear.
You cannot pull hard with a broken rope.Danish.
You cannot shade off the sun with one hand.Chinese.
You cannot shear the sheep closer than the skin.Danish.
You cannot strip two skins off one cow. (There is a limit to extortion.)Chinese.
You cannot take a cow from a man that has none.Danish.
You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
You can’t make a horn of a pig’s tail.
You can’t make a whistle of a pig’s tail.
You can’t sell the cow and have the milk too.