Absurdity Quotes - Page 20

• They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  Heartbroken, Stupidity, Desire

  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013). “Americanah”, p.153, Anchor

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• It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. ... World peace is only a dream because people won't allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts. We won't allow the color of a man's heart to be the color of his skin, the premise of his beliefs, and his self-worth. We won't allow him to be a peanut, therefore we won't allow ourselves to come to live in harmony. (Diary 18)

  Erin Gruwell

  Dream, Heart, Self Worth

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• Many businessmen fail to understand Python principles--the ultimate absurdity was an offer from America to buy the 'format' of the Python shows, that is, Monty Python without the Pythons--corporate methods do not have the conceptual framework to deal with an anarchist collective, run by intelligent and arrogant comedians who have proved that their method works.

  Robert Hewison

  Friends, Running, Failure

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• Some have speculated that the way [Albert] Camus died made his theories on absurdity a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others would say it was the triumphant meaningful way he lived that allowed him to rise heroically above absurdity.

  Aberjhani

  Meaningful, Self, Way

  Aberjhani (2014). “Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry”, p.80, Lulu.com

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• If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.

  Voltaire

  Atheist, Believe, Atrocities

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• Being in darkness and confusion is interesting to me. But behind it you can rise out of that and see things the way the really are. That there is some sort of truth to the whole thing, if you could just get to that point where you could see it, and live it, and feel it. I think it is a long, long, way off. In the meantime there’s suffering and darkness and confusion and absurdities, and it’s people kind of going in circles. It’s fantastic. It’s like a strange carnival: it’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of pain.

  David Lynch

  Fun, Pain, Creativity

  "Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film". Book by Joseph Maddrey, p. 160, 2004.

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• So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year, sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth.

  David C. Coates

  Laughter, Animal, Men

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• Better the comfort of a lie than the absurdity of the truth.

  Tanya Huff

  Lying, Comfort

  Tanya Huff (2005). “Smoke and Shadows”, p.97, Penguin

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• Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Writing, Heart, Optimistic

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• Intelligent, thinking people could take things like this in their stride, just as they took the larger absurdities of deadly dull jobs in the city and deadly dull homes in the suburbs. Economic circumstances might force you to live in this environment, but the important thing was to keep from being contaminated. The important thing, always, was to remember who you were.

  Richard Yates

  Jobs, Home, Intelligent

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• The thing I was beginning to figure out about Sam and Grace, the thing about Sam not being able to function without her, was that that sort of love only worked when you were sure both people would always be around for each other. If one half of the equation left, or died, or was slightly less perfect in their love, it became the most tragic, pathetic story invented, laughable in its absurdity. Without Grace, Sam was a joke without a punch line.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  People, Perfect, Grace

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• I saw something even more beautiful than a sense of humor: an appreciation for life’s essential absurdity.

  Stephen King

  Beautiful, Appreciation, Essentials

  Stephen King (2011). “11/22/63: A Novel”, p.700, Simon and Schuster

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• Narcissists are everywhere in this ripe age of self-love, which amazes me because so much in life would seem to foster humility. Each of us is a potential source of foolishness, each of us must endure the consequences of the foolishness of others, and in addition to all of that, Nature frequently works to impress upon us our absurdity and thereby remind us that we are not the masters of the universe that we like to suppose we are. - Odd Thomas - Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz pg 62 chapter 8

  Dean Koontz

  Humility, Self, Age

  Dean Koontz (2012). “Odd Apocalypse: An Odd Thomas Novel”, p.62, Bantam

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• When I wake, I have a brief, delicious feeling of happiness that is somehow connected with Peeta. Happiness, of course, is a complete absurdity at this point, since at the rate things are going, I'll be dead in a day. And that's the best-case scenario, if I'm able to eliminate the rest of the field, including myself, and get Peeta crowned as the winner of the Quarter Quell. Still, the sensation's so unexpected and sweet I cling to it, if only for a few moments. Before the gritty sand, the hot sun, and my itching skin demand a return to reality.

  Suzanne Collins

  Sweet, Reality, Feelings

  Suzanne Collins (2013). “The Hunger Games Complete Trilogy”, p.497, Scholastic UK

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• The institutions of college athletics exist primarily as unreality fueled by deceit. The unreality is that universities should be in the business of providing large spectacles of mass entertainment. The fundamental absurdity of that notion requires the promulgation of the various deceits necessary to carry it out.

  Charlie Pierce

  College, Deceit, Fundamentals

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• He had the appeal of a very young dog of a very large breed -- a kind of amiable absurdity.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Dog, Kind, Appearance

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Gaudy Night”, p.200, Open Road Media

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• It is one thing, then, to say, "The Bible contains the religion revealed by God ," and quite another to say, "Whatever is contained in the Bible is religion, and was revealed by God." If the latter be accepted, metaphor and allegory become literal statements and the errors and absurdities of bibliolatry follow.

  Lionel Trilling

  Errors, Metaphor, Accepted

  Lionel Trilling (1939). “Matthew Arnold”

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• And then it was, that grief and pain made themselves known to me as never before. Note this, because I knew the full absurdity of Fate and Fortune and Nature more truly than a human can bear to know it. And perhaps the description of this, brief as it is, may give consolation to another. The worst takes its time to come, and then to pass. The truth is, you cannot prepare anyone for this, nor convey an understanding of it through language. It must be known. And this I would wish on no one in the world.

  Anne Rice

  Pain, Grief, Fate

  Anne Rice (2011). “New Tales of the Vampires: includes Pandora and Vittorio the Vampire”, p.106, Ballantine Books

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• There is not much difference between a mortal man and a dying man. The absurdity of making plans is only slightly more obvious in the second case.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Death, Men, Differences

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• Yet, when these facts are seen side by side with other facts in the case, it is difficult not to become lost in superstitious awe. Their very absurdity seems to prohibit the use of the words 'chance' and 'coincidence.' For the sceptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman Law, it is administered with sub-human inefficiency.

  Eric Ambler

  Law, Use, Facts

  Eric Ambler (1992). “A Coffin for Dimitrios/Judgement on Deltchev/Passage of Arms: Three Complete Novels in One Volume”, Galahad Books

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• It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams.

  Joseph Conrad

  Dream, Struggle, Essence

  "Heart of Darkness". Book by Joseph Conrad, 1902.

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• But he had hardly felt the absurdity of those things, on the one hand, and the necessity of those others, on the other, (for it is rare that the feeling of absurdity is not followed by the feeling of necessity), when he felt the absurdity of those things of which he had just felt the necessity (for it is rare that the feeling of necessity is not followed by the feeling of absurdity.)

  Samuel Beckett

  Hands, Feelings, Felt

  Samuel Beckett (2012). “Watt”, p.97, Faber & Faber

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• She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness. I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible.

  Roald Dahl

  Teacher, Reading, School

  Roald Dahl (2007). “The Witches”, p.11, Penguin

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• Calvin: Isn't it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor? When you think about it, it's weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it's funny. Don't you think it's odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us? Hobbes: I suppose if we couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life.

  Bill Watterson

  Thinking, Appreciate, Giving

  "The Days Are Just Packed". Book by Bill Watterson, October 1993.

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• We look at, the absurdity of the system provides us the most material. And that is best served by sort of the theater of it all, you know, which, by the way, thank you both, because it's been helpful.

  Jon Stewart

  Looks, Way, Helpful

  "Jon Stewart's America". "Crossfire" with Paul Begala, Tucker Carlson, transcripts.cnn.com. October 15, 2004.

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