Quotes About Paradox

When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made.

For clearly it is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other.

The living and the dead, The awake and the sleeping, The young and the old are all one and the same. When the ones change, they become the others. When those shift again, they become these again. God is day and night. God is winter and summer. God is war and peace. God is fertility and famine. He transforms into many things. Day and night are one. Goodness and badness are one. The beginning and the end of a circle are one.

Ammesso che la passione umana abbia la virtù d'innalzarsi al disopra di ogni assurdo, come si può sostenere che non abbia anche quella d'innalzarsi al disopra dei propri assurdi?

Como les sucede a tantos jovenes, pues vivir la juventud es una muerte impetuosa y constante, ellos aspiraban continuamente a una nueva destrucción. Un hermoso joven en el umbral de la muerte debe tener una sonrisa en los labios.

Beautiful things always intimidate me [...] More than that, they drag me down. How can that be? Is it a superstition that beauty elevates mankind?

Sim, ele dormia, acordava, e as vezes, até fazia suas refeições ali dentro. Nesse estranho quarto sem janelas, esse quarto onde os ventos jamais sopravam e as árvores jamais rumorejavam, um quarto com ares de caixão, a tumba onde ele foi enterrado vivo. Ele escolhera viver em um caixão mesmo antes de ter sido assassinado. Um quarto de prazeres e de morte, envolto no perfume duradouro de mulher e o odor de seu próprio corpo.

if the world changed, i could not exist, and if i changed, the world could not exist

See? The line between good things and bad things is very thin. Most of the time, you can find them at the same place.

This is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its relevance. The more data we have and the better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated.

Still, humans have a wonderful capacity to believe in contradictions.

This is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour loses its relevance. The more data we have and the better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated.

Identity is defined by conflicts and dilemmas more than by agreement

los humanos poseen una maravillosa capacidad para creer en contradicciones. De manera que no debería ser ninguna sorpresa que millones de piadosos cristianos, musulmanes y judíos consigan creer a la vez en un Dios omnipotente y en un Diablo independiente.

De ahí que, paradójicamente, a medida que acumulamos más datos y aumentamos la potencia de nuestros ordenadores, los acontecimientos se tornan más erráticos e inesperados.

no debería ser ninguna sorpresa que millones de piadosos cristianos, musulmanes y judíos consigan creer a la vez en un Dios omnipotente y en un Diablo independiente.

O bien uno cree en un Dios único y omnipotente o bien cree en dos poderes opuestos, ninguno de ellos omnipotente. Aún así los humanos poseen una maravillosa capacidad para creer en contradicciones.

Just as medieval culture did not manage to square chivalry with Christianity, so the modern world fails to square liberty with equality. But this is no defect. Such contradictions are an inseparable part of every human culture.

Paradoxically, the more sacrifices we make for an imaginary story, the stronger the story becomes, because we desperately want to give meaning to these sacrifices and to the suffering we have caused. In politics this is known as the 'Our Boys Didn't Die in Vain' syndrome.

There is bad in good and there is no good in bad."

All truths are erroneous. This is the very essence of the dialectical process: today's truths become errors tomorrow; there is no final number.

An error is more useful than truth: truth is a thought suffering from arteriosclerosis.

We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war.

Do not use life to give life to death. Do not use death to bring death to life.