Getting into that university is like passing through the eye of a needle.
the eye of a needle
idiomA standard for something so difficult it is all but impossible to pass or achieve.
Origin
The phrase comes from Jesus's saying about wealth in Matthew 19:24, repeated in Mark 10:25: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The largest familiar animal set against the smallest familiar opening makes the point with deliberate impossibility.
A persistent later tradition claimed the Eye of the Needle was a low gate in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through if unloaded, softening the saying into mere difficulty — but there is no evidence such a gate existed, and the reading looks like an attempt to make the hard image more comfortable.
In English the eye of a needle stands for a threshold so narrow that passing it is nearly out of the question — a near-impossible test, standard, or bottleneck.
With thousands of applicants for a handful of grants, funding felt like threading the eye of a needle.
The approval process was the eye of a needle through which almost no proposal survived intact, each one whittled down by so many committees that what emerged bore little resemblance to what had gone in.
The Gospels and the Sermon on the Mount.
- 01
the salt of the earth (idiom)
Good, honest, dependable people who lack pretension.
- 02
a wolf in sheep's clothing (idiom)
A dangerous or hostile person who hides behind a harmless, friendly appearance.
- 03
cast the first stone (idiom)
To act self-righteously in accusing another person, believing oneself to be blameless.
- 04
go the extra mile (idiom)
To make an extra effort; to do a particularly good job.
- 05
turn the other cheek (idiom)
To accept punishment or injury without retaliating.
- 06
the blind leading the blind (idiom)
A situation in which someone incompetent is guiding others who are equally incompetent.