Quotes About Contradiction

At the moment when anyone begins to take philosophy seriously, all the world believes the opposite." —Human, All Too Human, "Assorted Opinions and Maxims

Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.

O povo, contudo, dizia-me que a orelha grande era não só um homem, mas um grande homem, um gênio. Eu, porém, nunca acreditei no povo quando ele me falava de grandes homens, e sustento a minha idéia de que era um aleijado às avessas que tinha pouquíssimo de tudo e uma coisa em demasia.

This world, the eternally imperfect, an eternal contradiction's image and imperfect image—an intoxicating joy to its imperfect creator:—thus did the world once seem to me.

Is he a poet? Or a genuine one? An emancipator? Or a subjugator? A good one? Or an evil one?

In a like manner, as soon as we know the meaning of being and the meaning of nonbeing, we know that a thing cannot be and not be at one and the same time, and under the same formal consideration.

Truth does grow, but it grows homogeneously, like an acorn into an oak; it does not swing in the breeze, like a weathercock. The leopard does not change his spots nor the Ethiopian his skin, though the leopard be put in bars or the Ethiopian in pink tights. The nature of certain things is fixed, and none more so than the nature of truth. Truth may be contradicted a thousand times, but that only proves that it is strong enough to survive a thousand assaults.

The truth that would answer this temptation was that faith in God must never contradict reason. The unreasonable venture never has the assurance of the Divine protection.

Thinking is, indeed, essentially the negation of that which is before us.

He was only a person on the outside and... his insides were ashes mixed with coins and a brain.

The omicron variant has so far turned out to be everything Anthony Fauci said it wouldn't be. It has not been the winter of death and destruction that Joe Biden predicted - far from it. The omicron variant is mild.

Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.

There are comedic rules and formulae and, while these tenets should be respected, especially by a newcomer, perversely you can still succeed by openly contradicting them. Because comedy is about breaking the rules. Even its own rules. Though, as with many disciplines, it is wise to master the basics before you attempt to subvert them.

It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old.

Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.

One of the things that always fascinated me about the Renaissance was that it was a time both of great scientific discovery and also of superstition and belief in magic. And so it was a period in which Galileo invented the telescope, but also a time when hundreds were burned at the stake because people thought they were witches.

Let me say it up front: I don't like bad hair or capes. I'm not into witches, warlocks or elves. I would never try to claim prog rock is cool. But I love it. And I know I'm not the only one.

The music of ABBA is not that happy. It might sound happy, in some strange way, but deep within, it's not happy music. It has that Nordic melancholic feeling to it. What fools you is the girls' voices. You know, I do think that is one of the secrets about ABBA. Even when we were really quite sad, we always sounded jubilant.

On one level, I am a massive joker and can't take anything seriously, but on the other hand, I'm incredibly serious and a deep thinker, so I have that dichotomy within me.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

You don't need the 'voice of God' commentary. Instead, by juxtaposing contradictory or confirmatory witnesses and archive material, your point of view becomes obvious.

A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny.

Everyone can relate to loving someone and hating them in the same moment - husbands, wives, partners, siblings, parents, friends. It's kind of universal in that way.