It Couldn’t Be Done
By Edgar A. Guest

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

“Don’t play for safety. It’s the most dangerous thing in the world.”  Hugh Walpole

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” –Thomas A. Edison

“A gem cannot be perfected without friction, nor man perfected without trials. –Chinese proverb

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.” -– Albert Ellis

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” –John C. Maxwell

“Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”  –Harry Truman

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checked with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither suffer much nor enjoy much because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”  — Theodore Roosevelt

“Follow an expert.”  –Virgil