Contradiction Quotes - Page 25

• A literal interpretation of the Gita lands one in a sea of contradictions.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Sea, Land, Gita

  Mahatma Gandhi (1967). “Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”

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• Meaning lies in the confrontation of contradiction - the coincidencia apositorum. That’s what we really feel, not these rational schemes that are constantly beating us over the head with the “thou shalts” and “thou should”, but rather a recovery of the real ambiguity of being and an ability to see ourselves as at once powerful and weak, noble and ignoble, future-oriented, past-facing.

  Terence McKenna

  Powerful, Real, Lying

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• Once upon a time, there was a prostitute called Maria. Wait a minute. "Once upon a time" is how all the best children's stories begin, and "prostitute" is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction? But since, at every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss, let's keep that beginning.

  Paulo Coelho

  Children, Book, Feet

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• She had been a teenager once, and she knew that, despite the apparent contradictions, a person's teenage years lasted well into their fifties.

  Derek Landy

  Teenage, Years, Wells

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• We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.

  Terence McKenna

  Ocean, Heart, Moon

  "The Archaic Revival". Book by Terence McKenna, 1991.

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• The director’s task is to recreate life, its movement, its contradictions, its dynamic and conflicts. It is his duty to reveal every iota of the truth he has seen, even if not everyone finds that truth acceptable. Of course an artist can lose his way, but even his mistakes are interesting provided they are sincere. For they represent the reality of his inner life, of the peregrinations and struggle into which the external world has thrown him.

  Andrei Tarkovsky

  Mistake, Struggle, Artist

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• You only learn when you give your whole being to something. When you give your whole being to mathematics,you learn; but when you are in a state of contradiction, when you do not want to learn but are forced to learn, then it becomes merely a process of accumulation. To learn is like reading a novel with innumerable characters; it requires your full attention, not contradictory attention.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Reading, Character, Giving

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• If you would listen, sir, in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Patterns, Might, Conflict

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2010). “Commentaries on Living”, p.166, M-y books ltd

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• Imagination could never invent the number of different contradictions that exist innately in each person's heart.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Heart, Numbers, Imagination

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• Being able to embrace contradictions is a sign of intelligence. Or insanity.

  Richard Kadrey

  Insanity, Able, Embrace

  Richard Kadrey (2015). “Butcher Bird”, p.240, Booklassic

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• It is significant that, as innocent babies are killed, and capital punishment is withheld from their murderers, the same men who plead for the murderer's life also demand the “right” to abortion. Usually, the same picketers that carry a sign one day, “Abolish Capital Punishment,” also carry “Legalize Abortion” another day. When this is called to their attention, their answer is, “There is no contradiction involved.” They are right: the thesis is “condemn the innocent and free the guilty.

  R.J. Rushdoony

  Baby, Men, Abortion

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• When I start a new seminar I tell my students that I will undoubtedly contradict myself, and that I will mean both things. But an acceptance of contradiction is no excuse for fuzzy thinking. We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledge that they cannot take use all the way.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Mean, Acceptance, Thinking

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “A Circle of Quiet”, p.22, Open Road Media

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• I love to move like a mouse inside this puzzle for the body, balancing the wish to be lost with the need to be found.

  Billy Collins

  Moving, Wish, Needs

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• "You're full of contradictions, Ms. Wallace." I looked up at him and arched a brow. "I'm a girl. That's part of the job description, Mr. Maxfield."

  Tammara Webber

  Girl, Jobs, Description

  "Easy". Book by Tammara Webber, May, 2012.

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• Nothing fails like success—because the self-imposed task of our society and all its members is a contradiction: to force things to happen which are acceptable only when they happen without force.

  Alan Watts

  Self, Tasks, Our Society

  Alan Watts (2011). “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are”, p.54, Souvenir Press

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• These are the few ways we can practice humility: To speak as little as possible of one's self. To mind one's own business. Not to want to manage other people's affairs. To avoid curiosity. To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully. To pass over the mistakes of others. To accept insults and injuries. To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked. To be kind and gentle even under provocation. Never to stand on one's dignity. To choose always the hardest.

  Mother Teresa

  Mistake, Humble, Humility

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• Here, fire turns into water; Here, the dancing of the rain declares the sun. There's no opposition in existence, no contradiction; Everything supports everything else.

  Rajneesh

  Rain, Fire, Dancing

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• The best part of a Mr. Goodbar is not the wrapper, is it? No, and the best part of a Coke is not the can. On those nights when you lie awake, either man or boy, wondering about yourself, peeling away one layer of oddness after another, you should remember and always be grateful that the woefully imperfect person that you are, with all your contradictions and unworthy desires, is not the best of you, any more than the wrapper is the best part of a Mr. Goodbar. -Odd Thomas - Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koonts pgs. 354-355 chapter 53

  Dean Koontz

  Lying, Grateful, Boys

  Dean Koontz (2016). “The Complete Odd Thomas 8-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd, Saint Odd”, p.1422, Bantam

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• [...] endless action and reaction. Those beautifully rounded pebbles which you gather on the sand and which you hold in your hand and marvel at their exceeding smoothness, were chiseled into their varies and graceful forms by the ceaseless action of countless waves. Nature is herself a great worker and never tolerates, without certain rebuke, any contradiction to her wise example. Inaction is followed by stagnation. Stagnation is followed by pestilence and pestilence is followed by death.

  Frederick Douglass

  Wise, Hands, Example

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• …You see, my dear friend, I am made up of contradictions, and I have reached a very mature age without resting upon anything positive, without having calmed my restless spirit either by religion or philosophy. Undoubtedly I should have gone mad but for music. Music is indeed the most beautiful of all Heaven's gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls. It is not the straw to which the drowning man clings; but a true friend, refuge, and comforter, for whose sake life is worth living

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

  Beautiful, True Friend, Philosophy

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• It's funny. Maria Elena and I, we are meant for each other and not meant for each other, it's a contradiction.

  Woody Allen

  Barcelona

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• That is the Mongolian creation myth: out of two different natures love is born. In contradiction, love grows in strength. In confrontation and transformation, love is preserved.

  Paulo Coelho

  Love Is, Two, Different

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• I don't even know what I'm looking for, although I hope I'll know it if I find it along the way. Sometimes I want to simplify my life into a simple bare thing. And other times I want to complicate it so thoroughly that everything I touch will become bound in some way to me. I've become quite aware of my contradictions, but there's no true resolution in that.

  David Levithan

  Simple, Want, Way

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• So, this is how it's become? This is how I've become? A walking contradiction? I'm surrounded by people and feel alone. I claim to crave a bit of normalcy but now that I have some, it's like I don't know what to do with it, I don't know how to be a normal person anymore.

  Gayle Forman

  People, Normalcy, Claims

  Gayle Forman (2011). “Where She Went”, p.21, Penguin

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• Freedom comes when you see the built-in contradiction of trying to manipulate something that is going right to begin with.... Stop trying to steer the river.

  Deepak Chopra

  Spiritual, Rivers, Trying

  Deepak Chopra (2003). “Golf for Enlightenment: The Seven Lessons for the Game of Life”, Random House Large Print Publishing

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