[Ads-l] Request help verifying quotation of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 3 05:46:07 UTC 2024


Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>  1948 George Bruce & Bertram Millhauser _Walk a Crooked Mile_ (film): The
> miraculous we do immediately. The impossible takes a few minutes longer."

Interesting variant. Thanks for sharing it. Inspired by your discovery
I found an instance with "miraculous" in 1943. This citation is now
included in the Quote Investigator article which begins with a 1794
citation. The update should be visible within 24 hours.

Quote Origin: The Difficult We Do Immediately. The Impossible Takes a
Little Longer
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/10/impossible-longer/

In 1943 "The Christian Science Monitor" published an article about the
successful large-scale production of aircraft engines at the Ranger
Engine Division of the Fairchild Airplane & Engine Corporation:

[ref] 1943 December 11, The Christian Science Monitor, Ranger Staffs
Do 'Impossible' For Air Force: Mass Output of Aircraft Engines by
Albert D. Hughes (Aviation Editor of The Christian Science Monitor),
Quote Page 7, Column 1, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
By this feat, Ranger also is considered to be carrying out an Air
Force maxim that spurs not only those in the service but also those
who are supplying it -- "The miraculous we do immediately. The
impossible takes only a little bit longer."
[End excerpt]

[Begin acknowledgement excerpt]
In addition, thanks to Jonathan Lighter who found the variant with the
word "miraculous" in the 1948 film "Walk a Crooked Mile".
[End acknowledgement except]

Garson

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