Quotes About Contradiction

The great advantage of the reductio method is that it allows us to tell if a statement is true, even if we do not know how to construct a proof for it. We can tell a statement is true by showing that its negation leads to a contradiction.

Russell's point is that if the set is a member of itself, then by definition it can't be a member of itself. But if it is not a member of itself, then it is a member of itself. So it is both a member of itself and not a member of itself. And that is a contradiction. This glaring mistake, allegedly, left Frege a broken man.

I don't get it. For the first few years of your life, all grown-ups do is teach you how to talk. And then, for the rest of your life, all they do is tell you to stop talking. What's up with that?

Miss Small was the opposite of her name. It was like a fat guy was named Mr. Thin or a dumb guy was named Mr. Smart or a really handsome guy was named Mr. Ugly or…well, you get the idea.

If we hear a joke so awful that we laugh at how bad it is, we are taking part in the irony; in other words, the joke did not contain irony; irony was provided by our response. Why is it ironic? Because the intent of the joke was to get laughter, and it did—but for the wrong reason.

He feared her, desired her, thought he'd very well kill any man who dared look twice at her, and here she was, expecting him to walk her home, as though he were a — a goddamned gentleman or something. Didn't she know the only one from whom she needed protection was him?

The trouble is the kind of guy I want to go out with doesn't even exist... Like a rugged, chain-smoking, intellectual, adventurer guy who's really serious, but also really funny and mean...

Today we love what tomorrow we hate, today we seek what tomorrow we shun, today we desire what tomorrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.

Arthritic toothless people who love orgasms are more likely to reproduce than are limber, toothy people who do not.

My views are very fluctuating. I have very contradictory takes on the subject. Dating is easier, while marriage is hard work. You see your friends having early divorces, and on the other hand, you see your parents having a successful marriage.

The essence of humanity's spiritual dilemma is that we evolved genetically to accept one truth and discovered another. Is there a way to erase the dilemma, to resolve the contradictions between the transcendentalist and the empiricist world views?

The great thing about the public is that they're quite capable of believing two absolutely contrary views at the same time.

Donald Trump is a disaster. He is a bully who doesn't have the curiosity to understand the issues; he contradicts himself repeatedly; his views of the world are an unmitigated disaster for America and for the American people, and I believe that all of this will become clearer with time.

The Rated-R Superstar was usually a vile and horrible human being who had some moments of being a good guy.

The characters that have greys are the more interesting characters. The hero who sometimes crosses the line and the villain who sometimes doesn't are just much more interesting.

A double bind is far worse than a straightforward damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't dilemma. It requires you to obey two mutually exclusive commands: Anything you do to fulfill one violates the other.

Human rights are praised more than ever - and violated as much as ever.

The more of what our music does violates the premise of its format that it's presented in, the better. So, hearing our music in the supermarket, a Muzak version, is great.

Violence is a calm that disturbs you.

In many ways, I think that, while we've been remarkably violent in our media, there's been a real schizophrenia. In private, on the Internet, and on public-affairs shows or talk radio, we're way more explicit than we've ever been.

In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa.

You want to make people laugh and by virtue of that please them, but when you're instructed to make people laugh and please them, you're too resentful to do it.

For every prescriptive idea about the craft of fiction, there's at least one writer who makes a virtue of the contrary.

No, the irony hasn't been lost on me: the happiness book has been making me miserable.