34 Insightful Quotes On Limitations

In a world that often urges us to think bigger and aim higher, the concept of limitations is frequently seen in a negative light. Yet, these boundaries, whether self-imposed or externally created, can offer profound insights and lessons. Understanding and appreciating limitations doesn't necessarily mean resigning to them; rather, it's about harnessing their power to inspire growth and creativity. In this collection of 34 insightful quotes, we delve into the wisdom of thinkers, artists, and leaders who have discovered the nuances of limitations and have used this understanding to elevate their journeys. Let's explore how embracing the constraints can lead to unexpected breakthroughs and newfound perspectives.

1. “Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.” - Robert A. Heinlein

2. “...in microphysics the observer interferes with the experiment in a way that can't be measured and that therefore can't be eliminated. No natural laws can be formulated, saying "such-and-such will happen in every case." All the microphysicist can say is "such-and-such is, according to statistical probability, likely to happen." This naturally represents a tremendous problem for our classical physical thinking. It requires a consideration, in a scientific experiment, of the mental outlook of the participant-observer: It could this be said that scientists can no longer hope to describe any aspects or qualities of outer objects in a completely independent, "objective" manner.” - M.-L. von Franz

3. “There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception.” - Mortimer J. Adler

4. “There's somethin I learned when I was homeless: Our limitation is God's opportunity. When you get all the way to the end of your rope and there ain't nothin you can do, that's when God takes over. I remember one time I was hunkered down in the hobo jungle with some folks. We was talkin 'bout life, and this fella was talkin, said, 'People think they're in control, but they ain't. The truth is, that which must befall thee must befall thee. And that which must pass the by must pass thee by.” - Ron Hall

5. “The purpose of empowerment is to urge you towards freedom, to help each of you to break free of all limitations. It is that freedom that will give you eternal happiness and finally connect you with the unconditional realization of TRUTH.” - Steve Maraboli

6. “It was a limitation of human consciousness: We live only in the future and past, we cannot perceive now. Now occupies no space, a hypothetical gap between future and past. Only an exceptional few could feel now athletes and jazzmen and, yes, thieves...” - William Landay

7. “How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

8. “Family was even a bigger word than I imagined, wide and without limitations, if you allowed it, defying easy definition. You had family that was supposed to be family and wasn't, family that wasn't family but was, halves becoming whole, wholes splitting into two; it was possible to lack whole, honest love and connection from family in lead roles, yet to be filled to abundance by the unexpected supporting players.” - Deb Caletti

9. “Harshaw had the arrogant humility of the man who has learned so much that he is aware of his own ignorance and he saw no point in 'measurements' when he did not know what he was measuring.” - Robert A. Heinlein

10. “In the game of life, we all receive a set of variables and limitations in the field of play. We can either focus on the lack thereof or empower ourselves to create better realities with the pieces we play the game with.” - T.F. Hodge

11. “And I couldn't make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren't supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren't supposed to dream big, either.We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly:” - Sherman Alexie

12. “Are we not all prisoners? She had read a wonderful play about a man who scratched on the wall of his cell, and she had felt that was true of life—one scratched on the wall.” - Virginia Woolf

13. “The Congresswoman was depressed by the fact that a woman of her standing could no longer count on making it to the rest room "in time" during the extensive rehabilitation that followed her shooting. Her husband, commander of a space shuttle crew, encouraged her by identifying with her limitation. Even revered astronauts, he revealed, have bodily limits and have to rely on Huggies during extended launch exercises.” - Gabrielle Giffords

14. “The trouble with men is that they have limited minds. That's the troublewith women, too." ["Existence" (1975)]” - Joanna Russ

15. “I admire how she protects her energy and understands her limitations.” - Terry Tempest Williams

16. “Only when there are things a man will not do is he capable of doing great things.” - Mencius

17. “Who is willing to be satisfied with a job that expresses all his limitations? He will accept such work only as a 'means of livelihood' while he waits to discover his 'true vocation'. The world is full of unsuccessful businessmen who still secretly believe they were meant to be artists or writers or actors in the movies.” - Thomas Merton

18. “Whence then come my errors? They come from the sole fact that since the will is much wider in its range and compass than the understanding, I do not restrain it within the same bounds, but extend it also to things which I do not understand: and as the will is of itself indifferent to these, it easily falls into error and sin, and chooses the evil for the good, or the false for the true.” - René Descartes

19. “Could mankind declare it was truly wise? Did man know everything on earth, or would he ever? Certainly not!” - E.A. Bucchianeri

20. “Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in...A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.” - Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

21. “She had told Kazan that she was bored with the roles she was playing because so many of them had been basically the same kind of empty-headed characterization. She wanted nothing ore than to challenge herself with more complex parts--and also wanted others to think of her as being more than a caricature....Anytime she had an opportunity to broaden her mind, she wanted to take advantage of it.” - J. Randy Taraborrelli

22. “Don't accept the limitations of other people who claim things are 'unchangeable'. If it's written in stone, bring your hammer and chisel.” - Peter McWilliams

23. “When we see someone or something as imperfect, it is a reflection of our limitations, not theirs.” - Steve Maraboli

24. “...But living creatures are idiosyncratic. They are created in such a way that they can actualize only what their microscopic minds wish for. The concept of limitless is bound heavily by the minor actualization of what perfection is...” - Lionel Suggs

25. “A true master will not deceive an able disciple. You are hampered by the limits you set and no limit can be set on skill.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

26. “You crave winning and fear losing instead of just doing. To succeed you must remove your self-imposed limitations.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

27. “...the imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles.” - Jonah Lehrer

28. “Currently, the Library of Congress houses eighteen million books. American publishers add another two hundred thousand titles to this stack each year. This means that at the current publishing rate, ten million new books will be added in the next fifty years. Add together the dusty LOC volumes with the shiny new and forthcoming books, and you get a bookshelf-warping total of twenty-eight million books available for an English reader in the next fifty years! But you can read only 2,600 - because you are a wildly ambitious book devourer. ... For every one book that you choose to read, you must ignore ten thousand other books simply because you don't have the time (or money!).” - Tony Reinke

29. “As a child there's a horror in discovering the limitations of the ones you love. The time you find that your mother cannot keep you safe, that your tutor makes a mistake, that the wrong path must be taken because the grown-ups lack the strength to take the right one...each of those moments is the theft of your childhood, each of them a blow that kills some part of the child you were, leaving another part of the man exposed, a new creature, tougher but tempered with bitterness and disappointment.” - Mark Lawrence

30. “... a practical problem can only be solved by action itself. When your practical problem is how to earn a living, a book on how to make friends and influence people cannot solve it, though it may suggest things to do. Nothing short of the doing solves the problem. It is solved only by earning a living.” - Mortimer Jerome Adler

31. “Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.” - V.S. Naipaul

32. “They say to think within the box, but it's funny how those in the box never go anywhere, where those outside it, get to see the world.” - Anthony Liccione

33. “If people don't recognize such limits, God will make them realize His own way” - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

34. “Caring too much about someone can make you lose your own limits.” - M.F. Moonzajer