Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

This proverb is attributed to the Tudor-era playwright and epigrammatist John Heywood and is typically linked to the mid-16th-century vogue for printed collections of English proverbs and moral sayings. Heywood’s works circulated in a culture that prized “sentences” (compact moral maxims) for household instruction and rhetorical ornament, and his proverb collections helped fix many such sayings in English. The line expresses a common Renaissance moral commonplace: that steadfast will and inner resolve can overcome outward obstacles. It is often quoted today as a general encouragement, but its original milieu was the didactic, proverbial literature of early modern England rather than a single dramatic scene or speech.

The saying asserts that determination and wholehearted commitment can overcome obstacles that appear insurmountable. “Willing heart” emphasizes not mere desire but an active readiness to act, endure, and persist—suggesting that inner resolve is a decisive factor in achievement. As a proverb, it functions less as a literal claim (some things truly are impossible) than as moral encouragement: difficulties shrink when met with courage, industry, and sustained intention. In a Tudor moral and didactic context, such a maxim aligns with common humanist and Christian-inflected advice literature that praised fortitude, diligence, and the governance of the will as central to a successful life.