Contradicting Quotes - Page 2

• I took Alexey Brodovitch course at the New School. He taught me something that I've always remembered: After we did the initial assignment, he contradicted what he had said the first week, and I said, "Okay." The next week, he contradicted what he had said the second week. We went through 10 weeks of contradicting, and I thought maybe he was drunk. At the end, he said, "You may think I've contradicted myself, but there's no one way to do anything."

  Jerry Schatzberg

  School, Thinking, Drunk

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• The principles of logic and mathematics are true simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason for this is that we cannot abandon them without contradicting ourselves, without sinning against the rules which govern the use of language, and so making our utterances self-stultifying. In other words, the truths of logic and mathematics are analytic propositions or tautologies.

  A.J. Ayer

  Self, Principles, Use

  "Language, Truth, and Logic" by A.J. Ayer, (p. 77), 1936.

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• Dear Lord, make me a better parent. Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to answer all their questions kindly. Keep me from interrupting them, talking back to them, and contradicting them. Make me as courteous to them as I would have them to be to me.

  Gary Myers

  Children, Communication, Talking

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• Wise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Men, Taste

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.364

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• What an antithetical mind! - tenderness, roughness - delicacy, coarseness - sentiment, sensuality - soaring and groveling, dirt and deity - all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay!

  Lord Byron

  Mind, Clay, Delicacy

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• In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

  Solomon

  Grief, Sorrow, Ecclesiastes

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• Intelligence is measured by a person's ability to see validity within both sides of contradicting arguments.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Sides, Argument, Ability

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• No Ideas original - there is nothing new under the sun.

  Nas

  Ideas, Old Things, Sun

  Song: No Idea's Original

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• In writing a novel, the writer must be able to identify emotionally and intellectually with two or three or four contradicting perspectives and give each of them very a convincing voice. It's like playing tennis with yourself and you have to be on both sides of the yard. You have to be on both sides, or all sides if there are more than two sides.

  Amos Oz

  Writing, Two Sides, Voice

  "'Everybody comes from somewhere.' An Interview with Writer Amos Oz". Interview with Prashanth Ramakrishna, logger.believermag.com. October 20, 2016.

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• The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well.

  Germaine Greer

  Strong, Communication, Community

  Germaine Greer (2009). “The Female Eunuch”, p.20, Harper Collins

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• Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success - only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, prosperous, progressive and free.

  Ronald Reagan

  Society, Alive, Spirit

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “The uncommon wisdom of Ronald Reagan: a portrait in his own words”

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• I don't consider myself very principled. As a travelling musician, you have to adapt and adjust to different contexts every day. It is always difficult to connect preach and practice. For instance, I fly more in a year than I had hoped to do in my whole life. I eat what people serve me, not what I think is right. I tried writing songs that were principled, but always ended up contradicting myself when trying to convert the principles into practice. In fact, these days I try not to be too principled, but rather be pragmatic.

  Moddi

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  Source: thequietus.com

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• Complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion, is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action.

  John Stuart Mill

  Liberty, Purpose, Action

  Source: www.usconstitution.net

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• If the Pope were to deny that the death penalty could be an exercise of retributive justice, he would be overthrowing the tradition of two millenia of Catholic thought, denying the teaching of several previous popes, and contradicting the teaching of Scripture.

  Avery Dulles

  Teaching, Exercise, Two

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• The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.

  George Will

  School, Intelligent, Design

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• However, he also trusted me to make my own decisions. Contradicting me or telling me what to do wasn't in his nature - even though he secretly may have wanted to.

  Richelle Mead

  Decision, May, Wanted

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• Too many cooks spoil the broth

  Jane Austen

  Food, Haste Makes Waste, Chinese

  Jane Austen (2013). “The Jane Austen Library: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, Watsons, Sanditon”, p.2567, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

  Ayn Rand

  Thinking, Atlas, Literature

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.152, Hamilton Books

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• ...churchgoing is not synonymous with personal spirituality. There are some people who get so busy in church worship and projects that they become insensitive to the pressing human needs that sourround them, contradicting the very precepts they profess to believe deeply.

  Stephen Covey

  Believe, People, Church

  Stephen R. Covey (2012). “The Wisdom and Teachings of Stephen R. Covey”, p.47, Simon and Schuster

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• If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding.

  Blaise Pascal

  Humble, Understanding, Monsters

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• We're always contradicting ourselves. We want people to tell us apart.... ...yet we don't want them to be able to. We want people to get to know us... ...but we also want them to keep their distance. We've always longed for someone to accept us... But we never believed there'd be anyone who would accept our twisted ways. That's why we'll stay locked up tight... ...in our own little private world... ...and throw away the key, so that no one can ever hurt us.

  Bisco Hatori

  Hurt, Distance, Keys

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• I write plays because writing dialogue is the only respectable way of contradicting yourself. I put a position, rebut it, refute the rebuttal, and rebut the refutation.

  Tom Stoppard

  Writing, Play, Way

  Tom Stoppard, Paul Delaney (1994). “Tom Stoppard in Conversation”, p.31, University of Michigan Press

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• Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

  Blaise Pascal

  Truth, Contradiction, Mathematics

  "Bare Facts and Naked Truths: A New Correspondence Theory of Truth". Book by George Englebretsen (p. 153), 2006.

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• The joy is an absurd yellow tulip, popping up in my life, contradicting all the evidence that shows it should not be there.

  Marya Hornbacher

  Yellow, Joy, Absurd

  Marya Hornbacher (2009). “Madness: A Bipolar Life”, p.248, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points so, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new Headmistress. Macmillan, five for contradicting me. Five because I don't like you, Potter. Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that. Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a Mudblood, Granger, so ten off for that.

  J. K. Rowling

  Squad, Rude, Docks

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