Contradiction Quotes - Page 32

• Those who condemn the supreme certainty of mathematics feed on confusion, and can never silence the contradictions of the sophistical sciences which lead to eternal quackery.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Life, Confusion

  Leonardo (da Vinci), Irma A. Richter, Thereza Wells (2008). “Notebooks”, p.9, Oxford University Press

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• They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.

  Samuel Johnson

  Practice, Watches, Association

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.194

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• The measure of your enlightenment is the degree to which you are comfortable with paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity.

  Deepak Chopra

  Enlightenment, Degrees, Paradox

  FaceBook post by Deepak Chopra from Jan 18, 2012

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• Capitalism, as a result of its own inner contradictions, moves toward a point when it will be unbalanced, when it will simply become impossible.

  Rosa Luxemburg

  Moving, Impossible, Results

  Rosa Luxemburg, Peter Hudis, Kevin B. Anderson (2004). “The Rosa Luxemburg Reader”, p.132, NYU Press

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• ... the primitve Christians, by laying so much stress upon a future life in contradiction to this life, and placing the lower creatures out of the pale of sympathy, and thus had the foundation for this utter disregard of animals in the light of our fellow creatures.

  Anna Brownell Jameson

  Christian, Stress, Animal

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• There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, , etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.

  Karl Marx

  Past, Government, Historical

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Philip Gasper (2005). “The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document”, p.68, Haymarket Books

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• Contradiction itself, far from always being a criterion of error, is sometimes a sign of truth.

  Simone Weil

  Errors, Perspective, Sometimes

  Simone Weil (2013). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.164, Routledge

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• To say that one need art, or politics, that incorporate ambiguity and contradiction is not to say that one then stops recognizing and condemning things as evil. However, it might stop one being so utterly convinced of the certainty of one's own solutions. There needs to be a strong understanding of fallibility and how the very act of certainty or authoritativeness can bring disasters.

  William Kentridge

  Strong, Art, Evil

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• You have to think of your brand as a kind of myth. A myth is a compelling story that is archetypal, if you know the teachings of Carl Jung. It has to have emotional content and all the themes of a great story: mystery, magic, adventure, intrigue, conflicts, contradiction, paradox.

  Deepak Chopra

  Teaching, Adventure, Emotional

  "Deepak Chopra: The Two Questions Every Business Leader Has to Ask". Interview with Eric Schurenberg, www.cbsnews.com. January 25, 2011.

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• We must never be afraid to be a sign of contradiction for the world.

  Mother Teresa

  Being Different, Different, World

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• Love resolves all contradictions. Without love, man cannot make sense of his existence.

  Peter Deunov

  Love, Men, Existence

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• In our inherent contradictions as humans, and in order to validate our own pain, we deny the pain of others. But it is in acknowledging the pain of others that we achieve fully our humanity.

  Hamza Yusuf

  Pain, Order, Humanity

  "Let us remember together" by Ed Husain, www.theguardian.com. January 27, 2009.

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• To say we love God as unseen and at the same time exercise cruelty toward the least creature moving by His life or by life derived from Him, was a contradiction in itself.

  John Woolman

  Moving, Exercise, Unseen

  John Woolman (1860). “A journal of the life, gospel labors and Christian experiences, of that faithful minister of Jesus Christ, John Woolman: to which are added, his last epistle, and other writings”, p.28

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• As complicated as joint custody is, it allows the delicious contradiction of having children and maintaining the intimacy of life-before-kid s.

  Delia Ephron

  Children, Kids, Custody

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• Faith is a mental attitude that is so convinced of its own idea - which so completely accepts it - that any contradiction is unthinkable and impossible.

  Ernest Holmes

  Attitude, Ideas, Impossible

  Ernest Holmes (2012). “The Science of Mind Collection”, p.199, Penguin

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• The thing about Zen is that it pushes contradictions to their ultimate limit where one has to choose between madness and innocence. And Zen. suggests that we may be driving toward one or the other on a cosmic scale. Driving toward them because, one way or the other, as madmen or innocents, we are already there. It might be good to open our eyes and see.

  Thomas Merton

  Eye, May, Might

  "Zen and the Birds of Appetite".

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• I’ve known I was mostly gay ever since I can remember. I know it troubles many people for me to refer to myself as a lesbian considering I have a male partner. I think they gather that it trivializes the plight of the LGBTQIA community & although that couldn’t be further from the truth at this point in my life I’m trying to steer as far from labeling as possible. Compartmentalizing myself only leads to condemnation & contradiction. I’m happier being fluid and I’m happier being honest.

  Caitlin Stasey

  Gay, Thinking, People

  "Reign's Caitlin Stasey on Religion, Sexuality, and Reproductive Rights" by Danica Lo, www.glamour.com. January 12, 2015.

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• Modern biblical scholars have established that the bible is a wiki. It was compiled over half a millennium from writers with different styles, dialects, character names, and conceptions of God and was subjected to haphazard editing that left it with many contradictions, duplications and non-sequiturs.

  Steven Pinker

  Character, Biblical, Editing

  Steven Pinker (2011). “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined”, p.28, Penguin

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• Once infected, the individual [infected with a god virus] cannot detect major contradictions in his beliefs and behavior. Belief systems become self-evident to him, and no amount of logical discourse will move him from his belief. If a Mormon and Catholic were to debate the merits of their respective religions, neither could see his own inconsistencies and logical fallacies, but would see the other's quite clearly.

  Darrel Ray

  Moving, Self, Catholic

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• I know why I make films -cinema is a mode of expression that allows you to express all the nuances of a thing while including its opposites. These are things that can't be quantified mentally; yet they can exist and be juxtaposed. That may seem very contradictory. Cinema allows you to film these contradictions.

  Catherine Breillat

  Expression, Opposites, Cinema

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• I am interested in a political art, that is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain ending - an art (and a politics) in which optimism is kept in check, and nihilism at bay.

  William Kentridge

  Art, Optimism, Political

  Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, William Kentridge (1998). “William Kentridge”, Societe Des Expositions Des Beaux

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• Human social life, I suggest, is the magma that erupts and builds up, so to speak, at the fault lines where natural human capacities meet and grind against and over natural human limitations…. This meeting of powers and limitations produces a creative, dynamic tension and energy that generates and fuels the making of human social life and social structures…. It is real human persons living through the tensions of natural existential contradictions who construct patterned social meanings, interactions, institutions, and structures.

  Christian Smith

  Real, Creative, Fuel

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• We're all living contradictions, trying to survive in a world filled with hypocrites

  Eric Jerome Dickey

  Hypocrite, Trying, World

  Eric Jerome Dickey (2003). “Between Lovers”, p.32, Penguin

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• Personal liberty without economic liberty is an absolute contradiction; the one cannot exist without the other.

  William E. Simon

  Liberty, Libertarian, Economic

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• If there were no contradictions and no struggle, there would be no world, no process, no life, and there would be nothing at all.

  Mao Zedong

  Struggle, Would Be, World

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