Quotes About Contradiction

Under the comb the tangle and the straight path are the same.

Graspings: wholes and not wholes, convergent divergent, consonant dissonant, from all things one and from one thing all.

Immortals are mortal, mortals are immortal, living the others' death, being dead in the others' life.

The bow (????) is called life (????) but its work is death.

From the strain of binding opposites comes harmony.

The way upward and the way downward are the same.

She put her cool hands to her hot cheeks, wondering why her heart should show so little regard for her feelings

It does not seem that the contradiction which exists between the aristocratic function of art and the democratic structure of modern society can ever be resolved.

Life often mocks every system; it is richer and fuller than the deepest thinker in all his wisdom can imagine.

The doctrine of evolution thus takes the place of the old religion in the modern man.320It is no science; it does not rest on undeniable facts; it has often in the past and in the present been contradicted by the facts. But that does not matter; miracle is the dearest child of faith.

Sometimes things acquire a tenderness, a monstrous tenderness we don't expect from them.

Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.

No, she laughed." How on earth could that be done? If you try to laugh and say 'No' at the same time, it sounds like neighing — yet people are perpetually doing it in novels. If they did it in real life they would be locked up.

It is almost a joke, but a joke that nobody tells.

Our virtues make us; but virtues are not enough, we must deploy our vices at times.

Each action contains its opposite. Each action contains the shadow-trace of the choice not made, the seeds of infinite variation. Each choice, once made, trips contingencies, alternatives; each choice breeds its own universe.

Policy is the servant of reason. It is a sort of blasphemy to make human reason contradict itself and advise in the name of policy what it forbids in the name of morality.

there is a contradiction between what desire wants – complete conquest – and what it needs in order to continue to exist:

We want everything, we want to be everything. We want to experience all the joys of good fortune and the full depths of suffering. We want the excitement of action and the calm of observation. We want the silence of the desert as well as the noise of the forum. Simultaneously we want to be the hermit´s thought and the voice of the people; we want to be both melody and harmony. Simultaneously! How could this be possible?

I love my parents' murderer; I suppose I could love anyone.

You're awful." He said it as though he was delighted. "And the worst part is that you believe otherwise.

With him, I am forever a night-blooming flower, attracted and repelled by the heat of the sun.

Some might think of him as a strong draught, burning the back of one's throat, but invigorating all the same. You might beg to differ. So long as you're begging, he doesn't mind a bit.

Cardan tucks my arm firmly through his before striding into the entryway, and I feel a rush of warmth as I match his step. I can't afford to be less than ruthlessly honest with myself. Against my better judgment, despite the fact that he is terrible, Cardan is also fun. Maybe I should be glad of how little it will matter.