Impossible Task/Quotes

Only in the Space Marines of the Legiones Astartes are courage and expertise perfectly blended. In other troops they are present in varying degrees and proportions, and many scholars have debated their relative merits.

For my own part, I come down on the side of courage. For courage makes a virtue of inexperience. I myself have commanded Imperial Guard troops whose probitor units have achieved great things, because their courage was infinite and because they were too inexperienced to realise that their goal was impossible.

—Leman Russ, Warhammer 40,000

Once, in winter, when everything was frozen as hard as a stone, and hill and vale lay covered with snow, the woman made a frock of paper, called her step-daughter, and said, "Here, put on this dress and go out into the wood, and fetch me a little basketful of strawberries, -- I have a fancy for some." "Good heavens!" said the girl, "no strawberries grow in winter! The ground is frozen, and besides the snow has covered everything. And why am I to go in this paper frock? It is so cold outside that one's very breath freezes! The wind will blow through the frock, and the thorns will tear it off my body." "Wilt thou contradict me again?" said the stepmother, "See that thou goest, and do not show thy face again until thou hast the basketful of strawberries!"

—"The Three Little Men In the Wood"

Then the Baron took off his gold ring and threw it into the sea, saying: 'Never let me see your face till you can show me that ring'; and he let her go.

—"The Fish and the Ring"

King Otto: Before I can give my permission, young man, I must set you a task, which, if you succeed, will prove you worthy of my daughter's hand.
Prince Charming: Yes, sir, I accept.
King Otto: Good. At nine o'clock tomorrow morning, armed only with your sword, you must go to the highest tower in the castle, and jump out of the window.

Narrator: And so, early the next morning, the young Prince Charming, dressed in a beautiful white robe, and gripping his magic sword, plummetted to a painful death.

—Monty Python's Flying Circus, "A Fairy Tale

"If you can slay the thorny Boar of Borythorn, she is yours," grinned a traveler. "But there is no thorny Boar of Borythorn, which makes it hard."

—James Thurber, The 13 Clocks