A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

DIFFERENT strokes for different folks

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 A. STODDARD 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. 2002 Washington Post 25 Feb. C2

There are many people who box for the sheer joy of it, there are even more who love to

watch them do so; it’s not my own cuppa—though for many years it was—but what it

says here is different strokes for different folks, so let the games begin. tact; ways and

means

The DIFFICULT is done at once; the impossible takes a little longer

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 Revolution Française (1847) I. ii. 8).

1873 TROLLOPE 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 H. HARRISON

Technicolor Time Machine iv. The impossible may take a while, but we do it, you know

the routine. 1981 P. MCCUTCHAN 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

difficult see also it is the FIRST step that is difficult.

difficulty see ENGLAND’S difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity.