The point of no return is the point beyond which one must continue on his or her current course of action because turning back is physically impossible, prohibitively expensive or dangerous. A particular irreversible action (e.g., setting off an explosion or signing a contract) can be a point of no return, but the point of no return can also be a calculated point during a continuous action (such as in aviation).
Read more about Point Of No Return: Origins and Spread of The Expression, Related Expressions
Famous quotes containing the words point of, point and/or return:
“The point of the dragonfly’s terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows, is not that it all fits together like clockwork--for it doesn’t ... but that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, finged tangle. Freedom is the world’s water and weather, the world’s nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy—but he who has shown the better temper.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“At your return visit our house; let our old acquaintance be renewed.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)