The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (126 page)

see
TASTES differ
.

 
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Of US origin:
strokes
= comforting gestures of approval or congratulation. Quickly picked up and used in a variety of parodic forms, as in a 1974 Volkswagen advertisement: Different Volks for different folks.
1973
Houston
(Texas)
Chronicle Magazine.
14 Oct. 4
The popular saying around P[almer] D[rug] A[buse] P[rogram] is ‘different strokes for different folks’, and that's the basis of the program.
1990
Gift of Letter
iii.
Peter sends and receives letters. He dictates everything he writes. I send and receive handwritten letters. I write out everything. Different strokes for different folks.
1997
Washington Times
24 Dec. C11
He thinks he is sterilizing his fork that way … Different strokes for different folks.
tact
;
ways and means

 
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A version of this is well known as the slogan of the US Armed Forces:
the difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.
The ‘French Minister’ to whom this saying is attributed in quot. 1873 is Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802), appointed finance minister by Louis XVI in 1783:
si c'est possible
,
c'est fait; impossible? cela se fera
, if a thing is possible, consider it done; the impossible? that will be done (quoted in J. Michelet
Histoire de la Révolution Française
(1847) I. ii. 8).
1873
Phineas Redux
II. xxix.
What was it the French Minister said. If it is simply difficult it is done. If it is impossible, it shall be done.
1967
Technicolor Time Machine
iv.
The impossible may take a while, but we do it, you know the routine.
1981
Shard calls Tune
iv.
A well-worn precept of the British Navy was that the difficult was done at once; the impossible took a little longer.
1997
National Review
29 Sept. 66
That's good, utilitarian, achievement-oriented American lingo. We do the difficult immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.
possibility and impossibility

 
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see also
it is the FIRST step that is difficult
.

 
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