Sentence examples for proved difficult if not from inspiring English sources

The rule has proved difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.

Spotting a bubble before it deflates has proved difficult, if not impossible, since otherwise bubbles wouldn't still occur with dismaying frequency.

Putting these ideas into political practice, however, proved difficult if not impossible, since many Germans continued to support an extensive safety net of unemployment insurance and other social welfare programs.

"It proved difficult, if not impossible, to raise hard questions about 9/11 in New York without it being perceived as criticism of the individual police and firefighters or of Mayor Giuliani," wrote the chairman and vice chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, and Lee H. Hamilton, a Democrat, in their book, "Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission".

However, the reductions proved difficult, if not impossible, to sustain.

That question proved difficult, if not impossible, to answer, and neither New York City nor the eventual recipient escaped with reputations intact.

The clashes revealed a depth of social polarisation and enmity between the feuding factions that may prove difficult if not impossible to overcome.

In this Leading Opinion Paper I will focus on aspects of natural ECM proteins and protein fragments that have proven difficult, if not impossible to date, to recapitulate in peptide-based systems.

Similarly, trying to get a lawyer to take your case on a contingency when the public customer got a six-figure settlement (even if only a fraction of what was sought), might prove difficult if not impossible.

Once the initial euphoria of the agreement settles, getting down to brass tacks of long-term implementation will prove difficult, if not impossible.

Finding such a combination in a single man, of course, may prove difficult if not impossible, which adds to the almost unprecedented level of uncertainty surrounding this papal election.