Please help before I make Google explode!
May 3, 2009 9:35 AM Subscribe
Please help me find this exact quotation and its citation!
There is a quote I read once somewhere that was a toast that a group of revolutionaries (I think communists) used to make and it was something like "Cheers to the success of our impossible task." At least that's how my brain remembers it. But whatever the quote is, I think its a toast and what it's doing is acknowledging both how difficult it is to make change while exhibiting the optimism of "knowing" that you can/will make it.
Does this ring a bell to anyone? If you can find the exact quote and its citation, I'd be very grateful. Thank you in advance.
There is a quote I read once somewhere that was a toast that a group of revolutionaries (I think communists) used to make and it was something like "Cheers to the success of our impossible task." At least that's how my brain remembers it. But whatever the quote is, I think its a toast and what it's doing is acknowledging both how difficult it is to make change while exhibiting the optimism of "knowing" that you can/will make it.
Does this ring a bell to anyone? If you can find the exact quote and its citation, I'd be very grateful. Thank you in advance.
I have googled various Russian versions and come up empty, which doesn't prove anything but suggests this may be more legendary than factual.
posted by languagehat at 10:49 AM on May 3, 2009
posted by languagehat at 10:49 AM on May 3, 2009
Best answer: In his sermon for First Unitarian Denver "Whisper Across the Divide" (January 9, 2005), Rev Mike Morran mentions "I once heard Father Daniel Berrigan tell of his efforts in the late 1980s to set up a free press in Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union. Every Friday they would gather around some cheap vodka in the makeshift apartment they used for an office and say, “Let us toast to the success of our impossible task!”"
posted by Petrot at 11:11 AM on May 3, 2009
posted by Petrot at 11:11 AM on May 3, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I swear I googled this to high heaven and couldn't find anything useful. Now I feel like a dolt.
Thanks again.
posted by Rudy Gerner at 11:45 AM on May 3, 2009
Thanks again.
posted by Rudy Gerner at 11:45 AM on May 3, 2009
Nah, don't. It happens to all of us.
Could you have been searching without using quotes? If you're looking for an exact phrase, put it in quotes and Google will give you results with those words in that sequence (e.g., "coffee beans") instead of all results with those words appearing anywhere (e.g., "coffee" and "beans").
posted by cribcage at 1:26 PM on May 3, 2009
Could you have been searching without using quotes? If you're looking for an exact phrase, put it in quotes and Google will give you results with those words in that sequence (e.g., "coffee beans") instead of all results with those words appearing anywhere (e.g., "coffee" and "beans").
posted by cribcage at 1:26 PM on May 3, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:07 AM on May 3, 2009