"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."

"He replied, Because you have so little faith.  I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, Move from here to there and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.

Do you think these verses are meant to take literally?  If not, why?

Yes and No. This is one of my favorite scriptures.  To take this particular scripture literally means that we should take every scripture literally. I think that is impossible. I do believe we should take encouragement from this scripture. If we focus on knowing every single scripture which I think no human can, we might miss out on something God wants us to learn.