implausible

It really is more natural to believe a preternatural story, that deals with things we don__ understand, than a natural story that contradicts things we do understand. Tell me that the great Mr Gladstone, in his last hours, was haunted by the ghost of Parnell, and I will be agnostic about it. But tell me that Mr Gladstone, when first presented to Queen Victoria, wore his hat in her drawing-room and slapped her on the back and offered her a cigar, and I am not agnostic at all. That is not impossible; it__ only incredible. But I__ much more certain it didn__ happen than that Parnell__ ghost didn__ appear; because it violates the laws of the world I do understand.

Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation_ the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.

With God, the word __mpossible_ is itself impossible.

It__ not about inviting great things into our lives. Rather, it__ about accepting the invitation of great things to step out of our lives.

Science is implausible to untutored human common sense, but that in no way casts doubt on the correctness of well-established scientific findings. Feelings of transcendence are simply that__eelings__nd, as such, have no capacity to reveal truths about a world external to the people who have them.