Absurdity Quotes - Page 11

• I think the fault is more with historicists who have stubbornly failed to develop a good theory of historicity. By simply resting on the feeble laurels of prima facie plausibility ('Jesus existed because everyone said so') and subjective notions of absurdity ('I can't believe Jesus didn't exist!'), the existence of Jesus has largely been taken for granted, even by competent historians who explicitly try to argue for it.

  Earl Doherty

  Jesus, Believe, Taken

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• The imaginary expression √(-a) and the negative expression -b, have this resemblance, that either of them occurring as the solution of a problem indicates some inconsistency or absurdity. As far as real meaning is concerned, both are imaginary, since 0 - a is as inconceivable as √(-a).

  Augustus De Morgan

  Real, Expression, Negative

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• I do not think that what is called Love at first sight is so great an absurdity as it is sometimes imagined to be. We generally make up our minds beforehand to the sort of person we should like, grave or gay, black, brown, or fair; with golden tresses or raven locks; - and when we meet with a complete example of the qualities we admire, the bargain is soon struck.

  William Hazlitt

  Love, Gay, Thinking

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.115

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• Yet as I cast my eye over the whole course of science I behold instances of false science, even more pretentious and popular than that of Einstein gradually fading into ineptitude under the searchlight; and I have no doubt that there will arise a new generation who will look with a wonder and amazement, deeper than now accompany Einstein, at our galaxy of thinkers, men of science, popular critics, authoritative professors and witty dramatists, who have been satisfied to waive their common sense in view of Einstein's absurdities.

  Arthur Lynch

  Witty, Eye, Science

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• A buddha laughs too, but his laughter has the quality of a smile. His laughter has the feminine quality of grace. When an ignorant person laughs, his laughter is very aggressive, egoistic. The ignorant person always laughs at others. The contented person, the person who knows life a little, laughs at himself - at the whole play of life itself. It is not addressed to anybody in particular. He just laughs at the absurdity of it all... the impossibility of it all.

  Rajneesh

  Laughter, Play, Laughing

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• Think of it : zillions and zillions of organisms running around, each under the hypnotic spell of a single truth, all these truths identical, and all logically incompatible with one another : 'My hereditary material is the most important material on earth; its survival justifies your frustration, pain, even death'. And you are one of those organisms, living your life in the thrall of a logical absurdity.

  Robert Wright

  Running, Pain, Frustration

  Robert Wright (2010). “The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology”, p.440, Vintage

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• there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average human being to supply any given army on any given day and the best at murder are those who preach against it and the best at hate are those who preach love and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

  Charles Bukowski

  Hate, War, Army

  Charles Bukowski (2012). “The Pleasures of the Damned: Selected Poems 1951-1993”, p.148, Canongate Books

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• Great boldness is seldom without some absurdity.

  Francis Bacon

  Boldness

  Francis Bacon, Brian Vickers (1996). “The Major Works”, p.362, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Aristotle, in spite of his reputation, is full of absurdities. He says that children should be conceived in the Winter, when the wind is in the North, and that if people marry too young the children will be female. He tells us that the blood of females is blacker than that of males; that the pig is the only animal liable to measles; that an elephant suffering from insomnia should have its shoulders rubbed with salt, olive-oil, and warm water; that women have fewer teeth than men, and so on. Nevertheless, he is considered by the great majority of philosophers a paragon of wisdom.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Children, Winter

  Bertrand Russell (1943). “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity”

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• A book may be very amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Book, Errors, Dull

  Oliver Goldsmith (1806). “The Vicar of Wakefield”, p.13

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• Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Jesus, Teaching, Firsts

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• In short, it is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property.

  Samuel Adams

  Mean, Men, Rights

  John White, Cecil Calvert Baltimore (2d Baron), Charles Hudson, Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson, Massachusetts Historical Society (1904). “The planting of colonies in New England”

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• I have complete faith in the continued absurdity of whatever’s going on.

  Jon Stewart

  Philadelphia Inquirer interview, April 22, 2007.

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• Physics advances by accepting absurdities. Its history is one of unbelievable ideas proving to be true.

  Rivka Galchen

  Ideas, Physics, Accepting

  "Dream Machine" by Rivka Galchen, www.newyorker.com. May 2, 2011.

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• As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.

  Voltaire

  Truth, Believe, Evil People

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• The mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd. Accommodation to the absurd readmits adults to the mysterious realm inhabited by children.

  Andre Breton

  Children, Mind, Adults

  Andre Breton, Mark Polizzotti (1997). “Anthology of Black Humor”, p.104, City Lights Books

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• It is a logical absurdity to equate democracy with freedom in the way that mainstream political philosophers and commentators typically do. A system where individuals and minorities are at the mercy of unconstrained majorities hardly constitutes freedom in any meaningful sense.

  Keith Preston

  Meaningful, Political, Democracy

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• The doctrine of transmigration… was a means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the cosmos to man; … none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the grounds of inherent absurdity.

  Thomas Huxley

  Mean, Men, Way

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• It's a wonderful narrative device to bring someone from the outside and look through his eyes if you want to describe the absurdity and preposterous reality that is accepted amongst the ones who are inside.

  Christoph Waltz

  Eye, Reality, Looks

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• Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether in religion, politics, science or manners, which it will not bear.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Im Sorry, Public Opinion, I Am Sorry

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• A girl had bidden me eat and drink and sleep, and had shown me friendship and had laughed at me and had called me a silly little boy. And this wonderful friend had talked to me of the saints and shown me that even when I had outdone myself in absurdity I was not alone.

  Hermann Hesse

  Girl, Silly, Sleep

  Hermann Hesse (2013). “Steppenwolf: A Novel”, p.101, Macmillan

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• When I am battered and oppressed by the world that humanity has made - which is difference from the world that is was given - my primary defense, my consolation, is the absurdity of that world

  Dean Koontz

  Differences, Humanity, Defense

  Dean Koontz (2008). “Odd Hours: An Odd Thomas Novel”, p.150, Bantam

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• "Another name? Oh, certainly. And when the Faceless Men come to kill me, I'll say, 'No, you have the wrong man, I'm a different dwarf with a hideous facial scar.'" Both Lannisters laughed at the absurdity of it all.

  George R. R. Martin

  Men, Dwarves, Names

  "A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3)". Book by George R. R. Martin, August 8, 2000.

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• Because you are defined not by life's imperfect moments, but by your reaction to them. And because there is joy in embracing - rather than running from - the utter absurdity of life.

  Jenny Lawson

  Running, Absurdity Of Life, Joy

  Jenny Lawson (2012). “Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir)”, p.233, Pan Macmillan

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• He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began.
  What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness! A beautiful woman utters absurdities: we listen, and we hear not the absurdities but wise thoughts"
  "All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Life, Beautiful, Wise

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