Quotes About Contradiction

Nature, as we know her, is no saint…. She comes eating and drinking and sinning.

Evil is to life what contradiction is to reason. If an argument is contradictory, reasoning breaks down. If life is consumed by evil, life breaks down.

The first escape route in the problem of evil is propounded by those who protest that God cannot exist because there is too much evil evident in life. They see no logical contradiction within their system since they do not have to prove that evil coexists with a good Creator. Evil exists; therefore, the Creator does not. That is categorically stated. But

Staring at life's cryptogram, we either see His [Jesus'] name unmistakably resplendont or we see the confusion of religions with no single message, just garbled beliefs that plague our existence, each justified by the voice of culture. That may be the tragedy of the beguiling sentiment we call tolerance, which has become a euphemism for contradiction.

Nadie tiene tiempo para nadie. Usted es uno de los pocos que me han hecho caso. Por eso me parece tan raro que sea un bombero. Es algo que de algún modo no parece hecho para usted.

He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know.

It is very difficult to be wholly joyous or wholly sad on this earth.

It is a fact that the bitterest contradictions and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion. [An anarchist]

On jest romantykiem, tak romantykiem. A to bardzo ?le... Bardzo ?le... Ale i bardzo dobrze.

La natura umana, temo, non è bellissima da cima a fondo.

He was absurd to the point of inspiration.

Where were you born? On a battlefield, [Yossarian] answered. No, no. In what state were you born? In a state of innocence.

That crazy bastard may be the only sane one left.

Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. That's some catch, that catch-22.

He made so many people uneasy. Everyone was always very friendly toward him, and no one was ever very nice; everyone spoke to him, and no one ever said anything.

Little by little, or maybe all at once, everything comes to mean its opposite; unreason argues itself into reason, and vice versa, and we cannot see the seams.

Clevinger is a very bright guy, a Harvard man, who knows everything about literature except how to enjoy it.

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind.

You pompous, rotund, neighborly, vacuous, complacent... - Yossarian

Everyone was always very friendly toward him, and no one was ever very nice; everyone spoke to him, and no one ever said anything.

that you have to be insane before they will let you fly no more missions, but the fact that you want to fly no more missions is proof that you are not insane.

Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions then he is caught in Catch-22: if he flies he is crazy, and doesn't have to; but if he doesn't want to he must be sane and has to. That's some catch...

Yossarian wrinkled his forehead with quizzical amusement. "You won't marry me because I'm crazy, and you say I'm crazy because I want to marry you? Is that right?

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22....