What+cannot+be
81you cannot make bricks without straw — Nothing can be made or performed without the necessary materials. Frequently used as a metaphorical phrase, to make bricks without straw. A (misapplied) allusion to EXODUS V. 7 (AV) Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as… …
82a stream cannot rise above its source — 1663 S. TUKE Adventures of Five Hours (Prologue) He would be ever w’you, but wants force; The Stream will rise no higher than the Source. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 4771 The Stream can never rise above the Spring head. 1905 H. A. VACHELL Hill… …
83you cannot not but … — you cannot/could not but… idiom (formal) used to show that everything else is impossible except the thing that you are saying • What could he do but forgive her? (= that was the only thing possible) Main entry: ↑butidiom …
84it remains to be seen (what) — it remains to be seen (whether/what/how) phrase used for saying that you cannot know yet if something will happen or be possible It remains to be seen whether she’ll be fit enough to play in the finals. Thesaurus: ways of saying that you do not …
85beggars cannot be choosers — people who depend on the generosity of others are in no position to dictate what others give them …
86you cannot catch old birds with chaff — The wise and experienced are not easily fooled. 1481 CAXTON Reynard the Fox (1880) xl. Wenest [do you think] thou thus to deceyue... I am no byrde to be locked ne take by chaf. I know wel ynowh good corn. c 1590 Timon (1842) IV. ii. ’Tis well. An …
87you cannot get a quart into a pint pot — A quart is an imperial measure of two pints. The metaphorical phrase to get (or put) a quart into a pint pot is also used. 1896 Daily News 23 July 4 They had been too ambitious. They had attempted what he might describe in homely phrase as… …
88the impossible — what cannot be, what is not able to happen …
89Pythagoreans and Eleatics — Edward Hussey PYTHAGORAS AND THE EARLY PYTHAGOREANS Pythagoras, a native of Samos, emigrated to southern Italy around 520, and seems to have established himself in the city of Croton. There he founded a society of people sharing his beliefs and… …
90Hume on human understanding — David Hume on human understanding Anne Jaap Jacobson David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature1 was published before he was 30 years old. It is often said to be the greatest philosophical work written in English. Bold and ambitious, it is designed… …
