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4e10aa8
|
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
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|
mistakes
paradox
timidity
wisdom
|
Oscar Wilde |
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1057959
|
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it.
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|
life
lost
paradox
tragedy
|
George Bernard Shaw |
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4daaa0d
|
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
|
|
knowing
nothing
paradox
plato
republic
socrates
socratic
wisdome
|
Plato |
|
e73378a
|
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.
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|
paradox
religion
|
Douglas Adams |
|
ecc62b6
|
Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.
|
|
football
inspirational
paradox
perseverance
|
Vince Lombardi |
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77b803a
|
He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.
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|
paradox
suffer
suffering
|
Michel de Montaigne |
|
4701886
|
The Universe is very, very big. It also loves a paradox. For example, it has some extremely strict rules. Rule number one: Nothing lasts forever. Not you or your family or your house or your planet or the sun. It is an absolute rule. Therefore when someone says that their love will never die, it means that their love is not real, for everything that is real dies. Rule number two: Everything lasts forever.
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|
forever
infinity
love
paradox
time
universe
|
Craig Ferguson |
|
78557a2
|
When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.
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|
paradox
|
Tennessee Williams |
|
8c5d918
|
Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity
|
|
analogy
disapproval
motto
pacifism
paradox
war
|
Stephen King |
|
1eaa19e
|
Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't three lefts make a right? Two wrongs don't make a right, but don't two negatives make a positive?
|
|
andrew
beautiful
clements
inspirational
ironic
life
oxemoron
paradox
wisdom
|
Andrew Clements |
|
1bab43c
|
how does she know it's the right room?' wondered Descant. Oh, I don't know; mabye it's the magical red glow coming from the doorway, or perhaps it's the deafening howl of the temporal winds.' said Mervall. Descant nodded.'You could be right, brother. And don't think I don't know sarcasm when I hear it.
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|
descant
fowl
mervall
paradox
time
|
Eoin Colfer |
|
6f8267b
|
They have gone. And the tunnel is about to close. So, boys, I am looking for someone to blame.
|
|
koboi
opal
paradox
time
|
Eoin Colfer |
|
1f710f3
|
Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions.
|
|
elric-of-melnibone
eternal-champion
imperfection
opposites
paradox
peace
philosophers
soothsayers
|
Michael Moorcock |
|
211738d
|
A circle has no end.
|
|
geometry
paradox
riddles
|
Isaac Asimov |
|
1267898
|
"Omnipotent-benevolent simply means that God is all-powerful and well-meaning.' 'I understand the concept. It's just . . . there seems to be a contradiction.' 'Yes. The contradiction is pain. Man's starvation, war, sickness . . .' 'Exactly!' Chartrand knew the camerlengo would understand. 'Terrible things happen in this world. Human tragedy seems like proof that God could not possibly be both all-powerful and well-meaning. If He loves us and has the power to change our situation, He would prevent our pain, wouldn't He?' The camerlengo frowned. 'Would He?' Chartrand felt uneasy. Had he overstepped his bounds? Was this one of those religious questions you just didn't ask? 'Well . . . if God loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It seems He is either omnipotent and uncaring, or benevolent and powerless to help.' 'Do you have children, Lieutenant?' Chartrand flushed. 'No, signore.' 'Imagine you had an eight-year-old son . . . would you love him?' 'Of course.' 'Would you let him skateboard?' Chartrand did a double take. The camerlengo always seemed oddly "in touch" for a clergyman. 'Yeah, I guess,' Chartrand said. 'Sure, I'd let him skateboard, but I'd tell him to be careful.' 'So as this child's father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?' 'I wouldn't run behind him and mollycoddle him if that's what you mean.' 'But what if he fell and skinned his knee?' 'He would learn to be more careful.' The camerlengo smiled. 'So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child's pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?' 'Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It's how we learn.' The camerlengo nodded. 'Exactly."
|
|
faith
god
omnipotence
paradox
religion
|
Dan Brown |
|
afbce8c
|
She was a triumph over ugliness, so often more beguiling than real beauty, if only because it contains paradox.
|
|
paradox
ugliness
|
Truman Capote |
|
2cabb56
|
And he who wields white, wild magic gold is a paradox For he is everything and nothing Hero and fool Potent, helpless And with one word of truth or treachery He will save or damn the earth Because he is mad and sane Cold and passionate Lost and found
|
|
choice
conflict
paradox
|
Stephen R. Donaldson |
|
81415e8
|
And that was all the part of it - the way you were obliged to live. You stifled a groan, you lied about your love, you deceived your legal wife, and all in the name of honour. That was the damned paradox of it - in order to behave well, you have to behave badly.
|
|
life
paradox
|
Julian Barnes |
|
631a383
|
Our subject is, you see, impelled towards the good by, paradoxically, being impelled towards evil. The intention to act violently is accompanied by strong feelings of physical distress. To counter these the subject has to switch to a diametrically opposed attitude.
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|
good-and-evil
paradox
violence
|
Anthony Burgess |
|
6e7c547
|
I particularly scorn my fondness for paradox. I despise pessimism, narcissism, solipsism, truculence, word-play, and pusillanimity, my chiefer inclinations; loathe self-loathers ergo me; have no pity for self-pity and so am free of that sweet baseness. I doubt I am. Being me's no joke.
|
|
paradox
|
John Barth |
|
5e6187c
|
There is a strange duality in the human which makes for an ethical paradox. We have definitions of good qualities and of bad; not changing things, but generally considered good and bad throughout the ages and throughout the species. Of the good, we think always of wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, humility; and the qualities of cruelty, greed, self-interest, graspingness, and rapacity are universally considered undesirable. And yet in our structure of society, the so-called and considered good qualities are invariable concomitants of failure, while the bad ones are the cornerstones of success...Perhaps no other animal is so torn between alternatives. Man might be described fairly adequately, if simply, as a two-legged paradox.
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|
paradox
|
John Steinbeck |
|
b2cb1cc
|
He was the second snowman to be melting away before her eyes, only this one was different. It was a paradox. The colder he became, the more he melted.
|
|
paradox
sad
snowman
|
Markus Zusak |
|
cc15eb4
|
Men of today seem to feel more acutely than ever the paradox of their condition. They know themselves to be the supreme end to which all action should be subordinated, but the exigencies of action force them to treat one another as instruments or obstacles, as means. The more widespread their mastery of the world, the more they find themselves crushed by uncontrollable forces. Though they are masters of the atomic bomb, yet it is created only to destroy them. Each one has the incomparable taste in his mouth of his own life, and yet each feels himself more insignificant than an insect within the immense collectivity whose limits are one with the earth's. Perhaps in no other age have they manifested their grandeur more brilliantly, and in no other age has this grandeur been so horribly flouted. In spite of so many stubborn lies, at every moment, at every opportunity, the truth comes to light, the truth of life and death, of my solitude and my bond with the world, of my freedom and my servitude, of the insignificance and the sovereign importance of each man and all men.
|
|
paradox
|
Simone de Beauvoir |
|
26f476e
|
The subtlest lie of all is the full truth.
|
|
paradox
subtlety
truth
untruth
|
Michael Moorcock |
|
c23ba20
|
Each cherry took about three seconds to eat. Three seconds to eat, but at least five years in the making. It seemed unfair to the hard-working cherry tree. The least I could do was to devote my attention to the cherry in those three seconds, really appreciate the tartness of the skin and the faint crunching sound when I bite down. I guess it's called mindfulness. Or being in the moment, or making the mundane sacred. Whatever it is, I'm doing it more. Like the ridiculously extended thank-you list for my hummus, the fruit taboo made me more aware of the whole cherry process, the seed, the soil, the five years of watering and waiting. That's the paradox: I thought religion would make me live with my head in the clouds, but as often as not, it grounds me in this world.
|
|
attention
cherries
cherry-tree
page-172
paradox
religion
sacred
wisdom
|
A.J. Jacobs |
|
c080a64
|
The paradox of anthropology: to see something, you had to be outside of it, but when you were outside of it, you couldn't see it for what it was.
|
|
paradox
|
Paul La Farge |
|
46d0c26
|
The greatest influence in writing was G. K. Chesterton who never used a useless word, who saw the value of a paradox, and avoided what was trite.
|
|
paradox
writing
|
Fulton J. Sheen |
|
c3bc95c
|
The many contradictions in our lives - such as being home while feeling homeless, being busy while feeling bored, being popular while feeling lonely, being believers while feeling many doubts - can frustrate, irritate, and even discourage us. They make us feel that we are never fully present. Every door that opens for us makes us see how many more doors are closed. But there is another response. These same contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing, for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy. Contradictions, thus understood, create the friction that can help us move toward God.
|
|
god
longing
paradox
|
Henri J.M. Nouwen |
|
73b22e3
|
The pile of stones thus marks both an act of deliberate remembrance, and an act of deliberate forgetting. They're fond of paradox in that region.
|
|
paradox
remembrance
|
Margaret Atwood |
|
36690c0
|
"He smiled, "Why, you will go home and then you will find that home is not home anymore. Then you will really be in trouble. As long as you stay here, you can always think: One day I will go home." He played with my thumb and grinned. " ?" "Beautiful logic," I said. "You mean I have a home to go to as long as I don't go there?" He laughed. "Well, isn't it true? You don't have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back."
|
|
giovanni-s-room
home
james-baldwin
paradox
|
James Baldwin |
|
77136e3
|
At which Charion Pratt blushed girlishly, to her own furious embarrassment, yet the eye she cast upon the little coxcomb was not unlike that which a certain toad had once cast upon her: for there is never anything but apparent paradox in the choices made by lovers.
|
|
love
making-eyes
paradox
|
Michael Moorcock |
|
e2c9770
|
It's astonishing how well the worse reason looks when you try to make it appear the better.
|
|
editha
george
mgg
paradox
realitivity
william-dean-howells
worse-reason
|
William Dean Howells |
|
245002f
|
Minciunile sunt fascinante pentru ca ele demasca paradoxurile societatii noastre
|
|
paradox
society
|
James Patterson |