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| A thing cannot be at the same time both true and false. Chinese. | 1 |
| A thousand men cannot undress a naked man. Modern Greek. | 2 |
| A toad propping a bed-post firmly. Chinese. | 3 |
| I cannot run and sit still at the same time. | 4 |
| I cannot sell the cow and have the milk. Scotch. | 5 |
| I cannot spin and weave at the same time. | 6 |
| It is always the impossible that happens. French. | 7 |
| Nae man can baith sup an’ blaw thegither. | 8 |
| Nae man can make his ain hap. | 9 |
| No man can at the same time fill his cup from the source and the mouth of the Nile. Dr. Johnson. | 10 |
| No one can be caught in places he does not visit. Danish. | 11 |
| No one can blow and swallow at the same time. German. | 12 |
| No one is bound to do impossibilities. French, Italian. | 13 |
| Not even a thousand men in armor can strip a naked man. Turkish. | 14 |
| Nothing is impossible to pains and patience. Ray. | 15 |
| One actor cannot perform a play. Chinese. | 16 |
| One cannot be and have been. French. | 17 |
| One cannot be both old and young at the same time. German. | 18 |
| One cannot be in two places at once. | 19 |
| One cannot drink and whistle at the same time. Italian. | 20 |
| One cannot ring the bells and walk in the procession. French. | 21 |
| One cannot shear a naked sheep. | 22 |
| One cannot wash a blackamoor white. German. | 23 |
| One can’t shoe a running horse. Dutch. | 24 |
| One foot cannot stand on two boats. Chinese. | 25 |
| That which has been eaten out of the pot cannot be put into the dish. Danish. | 26 |
| The water that comes from the same spring cannot be both pure and salt. | 27 |
| The wonderful and impossible have collided. African. | 28 |
| There is no stripping a naked man. German. | 29 |
| To believe a business impossible is the way to make it so. | 30 |
| You cannot clap with one hand. Chinese. | 31 |
| You cannot coax de mornin’-glory to clime de wrong way roun’ de corn stalk. African American. | 32 |
| You cannot damage a wrecked ship. Italian. | 33 |
| You cannot draw blood from a turnip. Italian. | 34 |
| You cannot draw wine out of an empty cask. German. | 35 |
| You cannot drive a wind-mill with a pair of bellows. | 36 |
| You cannot get oil out of a wall. | 37 |
| You cannot make a hawk of a buzzard. French. | 38 |
| You cannot make a sieve of an ass’s tail. German. | 39 |
| You cannot make a silk purse of a sow’s ear. | 40 |
| You cannot make an ass drink if he is not thirsty. French. | 41 |
| You cannot make velvet of a sow’s ear. | 42 |
| You cannot pull hard with a broken rope. Danish. | 43 |
| You cannot shade off the sun with one hand. Chinese. | 44 |
| You cannot shear the sheep closer than the skin. Danish. | 45 |
| You cannot strip two skins off one cow. (There is a limit to extortion.) Chinese. | 46 |
| You cannot take a cow from a man that has none. Danish. | 47 |
| You can’t have your cake and eat it too. | 48 |
| You can’t make a horn of a pig’s tail. | 49 |
| You can’t make a whistle of a pig’s tail. | 50 |
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| You can’t sell the cow and have the milk too. | 51 |
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