Contradictory Quotes

• Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

  George Orwell

  Mean, Two, Mind

  Nineteen Eighty-Four pt. 2, ch. 9 (1949)

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• You may find many contradictory statements and philosophies within my writings. However, to this I will say such is life, for life is full of contradictions.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Philosophy, Writing, Literature

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• Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique.

  Lukas Foss

  Missing You, Artist, Unique

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  There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself.

  Robert De Niro

  Ironic

  "Robert De Niro: the ultimate viewing guide" by Angie Errigo, www.empireonline.com. February 23, 2016.

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• To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.

  Emma Goldman

  Character, Ideas, Intellectual

  Emma Goldman (1998). “Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader”

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• My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed... And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is.

  Saint Augustine

  Light, Sensual, Mind

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• Emotion is messy, contradictory... and true.

  Nigella Lawson

  Literature, Emotion, Messy

  "Nigella Lawson: Who'd be a goddess?" by Sally Vincent, www.theguardian.com. October 15, 2004.

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• It is not possible to live in this age if you don't have a sense of many contradictory forces.

  Rem Koolhaas

  Age, Force, Ifs

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• Do what you will this life's a fiction, And is made up of contradiction.

  William Blake

  History, Fiction, World

  "The Selected Poems of William Blake".

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• The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese

  Steven Wright

  Funny, Witty, Time

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• The 'morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

  Andrew Carnegie

  Strong, Men, Principles

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• One might as well try to ride two horses moving in different directions, as to try to maintain in equal force two opposing or contradictory sets of desires.

  Robert Collier

  Horse, Moving, Two

  Robert Collier (1971). “Riches Within Your Reach: The Law of the Higher Potential”

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• Some people suggest that the problem is the separation of powers. If you had a parliamentary system, the struggle for power would not result in such complex peace treaties that empower so many different people to pursue so many contradictory aims

  James Q. Wilson

  Peace, Struggle, People

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• Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times.

  Rem Koolhaas

  Beautiful, Forever, Batteries

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• Disney made a fortune out of inventing the businessman's idea of the imaginary as the contradictory of the businessman's idea of the real.

  David Antin

  Real, Ideas, Made

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• It's about how to bring together the seemingly contradictory aspects of the memorial, which is about a tragedy and how it changed the world, but also about creating a vital and beautiful city of the 21st century.

  Daniel Libeskind

  Beautiful, Cities, Creating

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• If we consider the actual basis of this information [i.e., intelligence], how unreliable and transient it is, we soon realize that war is a flimsy structure that can easily collapse and bury us in its ruins. ... Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain. This is true of all intelligence but even more so in the heat of battle, where such reports tend to contradict and cancel each other out. In short, most intelligence is false, and the effect of fear is to multiply lies and inaccuracies.

  Carl von Clausewitz

  War, Lying, Battle

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• It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!

  Ralph Ellison

  Inspirational, Being Yourself, Men

  Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.40, Vintage

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• Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

  Andrew Carnegie

  Strong, Men, Weakness

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• Absence makes the heart grow fonder

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  I Miss You, Romantic, Missing You

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• It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself.

  Ralph Ellison

  Being Yourself, Self Esteem, Expectations

  Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.40, Vintage

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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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• The second mouse gets the cheese!

  Terry Pratchett

  Funny, Witty, Iron

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• Many hands make light work.

  John Heywood

  Change, Teamwork, Hands

  John Heywood (1562). “The Proverbs, Epigrams, and Miscellanies of John Heywood ...”, p.221

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• I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.

  Ralph Ellison

  Being Yourself, Individuality, Asking

  Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.40, Vintage

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