Quotes About Paradox

Magic could not be measured and explained in scientific terms, for magic grew through destroying the very natural principles that made science as people knew it possible.

It is strange to think that when I went to the sea I imagined that I was giving up the world. But one surrenders power in one form, and grasps it in another.

We may love our chains and our stripes too.

Yes, I am free, she said to herself, but it's not like ordinary freedom, it's being in hell, a brilliant lucid hell.

Do you really believe that? That it's wicked to love destiny? Yes. What happens is usually what oughtn't to happen. Why love it?

I am the nonsense priest of the nonsense god!

You said you were having fun. Well, yes and no, strictly speaking I was in hell. Perhaps I have always been there. One can have fun in hell.

evil was vulnerable, even though it wore armor weighing a thousand pounds. There would always be some spot in it which was u defended; and if the good in man were dominant it would find that exposed area and evolve a way to penetrate it. The emotion must convey the idea that his conflict with Goliath was a parable of good and evil.

Changelessness is decay. A paradox. There is no decay without a change for the worse. Changelessness is a change for the worse

After all, all devices have their dangers. The discovery of speech introduced communication—and lies. The discovery of fire introduced cooking—and arson. The discovery of the compass improved navigation—and destroyed civilizations in Mexico and Peru. The automobile is marvelously useful—and kills Americans by the tens of thousands each year. Medical advances have saved lives by the millions—and intensified the population explosion.

That was the trouble with the Outside. One teetered forever between unpleasant alternatives.

What we gain in the straightaways, we lose in the roundabouts. That's the way the universe works. We've just got to fool it somehow.

An insolubility is not a problem.

sipping wine while the house was falling

Cleon II was Lord of the Universe. Cleon II also suffered from a painful and undiagnosed ailment. By the queer twists of human affairs, the two statements are not mutually exclusive, nor even particularly incongruous.

Absolute terror seemed paradoxically to have lent a lucidity to her thoughts and words that was entirely out of character.

All sources of energy in our Universe run down. We can't help that. Everything is downhill in just one direction, and we can force a temporary uphill, backward, only by taking advantage of some greater downhill in the vicinity. If we want useful energy forever, we need a road that is downhill both ways. That is a paradox in our Universe; it stands to reason that whatever is downhill one way is uphill going back.

Las historias de viaje en el tiempo son demasiado divertidas para ser eliminadas simplemente por consideraciones mundanas sobre impracticabilidad o incluso imposibilidad.

When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

Aparentemente, las multitudes se manejan más fácilmente que los individuos. Parece una paradoja.

Es sorprendente que una colección de declaraciones que son individualmente ciertas puedan usarse, combinadas, para conseguir un resultado que no se hubiera logrado con la verdad.

There is some mysterious strength in fools. They are deeply rooted in the primeval chaos.

The worst dog gets the best bone. Why is it?

They could not understand the advantage of living contrary to their inclinations in this world in order to enjoy a hypothetical well-being in another.