• One can expect an agreement between philosophers sooner than between clocks. — Seneca the Younger (c. 4 b.c.e. – 65 c.e.), Apocolocyntosis.

• I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand than he shall get one on his cheek. — William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603–1604), Act II, scene i, lines 196–197.

• That proposal has a snowball’s chance in hell of being accepted.