Irony Quotes - Page 23

• The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, I love you madly, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly.

  Umberto Eco

  Love, Attitude, Past

  Umberto Eco (1984). “Postscript to The name of the rose”, Harcourt

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• Irony: While we increasingly hold people more responsible if they drink and drive, we hold women less responsible if they drink and have sex.

  Warren Farrell

  Sex, People, Drink

  "The Myth of Male Power". Book by Warren Farrell, 1993.

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• Irony and pity are two good counselors: one, in smiling, makes life pleasurable; the other, who cries, makes it sacred.

  Anatole France

  Life, Two, Inspire

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• Irony is the bringing together of two contradictory truths and to make out of the contradiction a new truth, with a laugh or a smile.

  Anne Hathaway

  Truth, Reality, Two

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• All the pathos and irony of leaving one's youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveller learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.

  Paul Fussell

  Wise, Travel, Joy

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• It's one of the ironies of investing. The rich can afford to take risks, but they don't need to. The poor need to take risks, but they often can't afford to.

  Jonathan Clements

  Often Can, Risk, Needs

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• Many would be cowards if they had courage enough.

  Thomas Fuller

  Confidence, Military, Ironic

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• My friend "M" says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile, because your lips have rotted off.

  Isaac Marion

  Zombie, Lips, Smile Because

  Isaac Marion (2016). “Warm Bodies and The New Hunger: A Special 5th Anniversary Edition”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Eye, Compassion, Color

  Orhan Pamuk (2011). “My Name Is Red”, p.343, Faber & Faber

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• You were so near death that ghosts crowded around you, weeping silver tears, waiting for you with such smiles. You humans, you know, whoever built you sewed irony into your sinews.

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Waiting, Tears, Ghost

  Catherynne M. Valente (2011). “Deathless”, p.313, Macmillan

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• One of the ironies of courage, and the reason why we prize it so highly, is that we find it easier to be brave for someone else than we do for ourselves alone.

  Gregory David Roberts

  Brave, Reason Why, Shantaram

  Gregory David Roberts (2004). “Shantaram: A Novel”, p.337, Macmillan

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• Irony won't save you from anything; humour doesn't do anything at all. You can look at life ironically for years, maybe decades; there are people who seem to go through most of their lives seeing the funny side, but in the end, life always breaks your heart. Doesn't matter how brave you are, or how reserved, or how much you've developed a sense of humour, you still end up with your heart broken. That's when you stop laughing.

  Michel Houellebecq

  Heart, Years, People

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• Accept that there are things in this world we can never explain and life will be understandable. That is the irony of life. It is also the beauty of it.

  Tan Twan Eng

  World, Accepting, This World

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• What happens when we're dead? The irony is that all our questions wil be answered after we die. We spend our whole life trying to figure out the truth and the only way we'll find out what it is, is to get hit by a bus. And the only comfort that religion offers is that God is driving that bus.

  John Ryman

  Religious, Atheist, Trying

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• I hope that my ideas attract a lively dialogue, even if my sentences are simple. Simple sentences have always served me well. And I don't use semicolons. It's hard to read anyway, especially for high school kids. Also, I avoid irony, too. I don't like people saying one thing and meaning the other.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  School, Kids, Simple

  Source: www.mcsweeneys.net

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• The terrible thing about free soloing difficult routes that are within one's capacity, is the chance that faced with ultimate danger and need for ultimate self-control, one's nerve might fail and cause an error. That's irony of it - that fear could short-circiut skill, that one would die as a direcy result of being afraid to die.

  Royal Robbins

  Errors, Climbing, Self

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• There's a grosser irony about Politically Correct English. This is that PCE purports to be the dialect of progressive reform but is in fact - in its Orwellian substitution of the euphemisms of social equality for social equality itself - of vastly more help to conservatives and the US status quo than traditional SNOOT prescriptions ever were.

  David Foster Wallace

  Reform, Dialect, Facts

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• The irony is that the person not taking risks feels the same amount of fear as the person who regularly takes risks.

  Peter McWilliams

  Inspirational, Risk, Feels

  Peter McWilliams (1997). “Do It!: Let's Get Off Our Buts”, Mary Book / Prelude Press

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• Life's irony is that as soon as worldly goods and worldly success are of no concern to you, the way is open for them to flow to you.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Life, Way, Flow

  Neale Donald Walsch (1996). “Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue”, p.139, Penguin

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• The irony of the matter is that the future generations do not have a vote. In effect, we hold their proxy.

  Charles J. Hitch

  Accountability, Generations, Matter

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• This human nature is shabby stuff, as you may know from introspection.

  Peter De Vries

  May, Stuff, Human Nature

  "Mrs. Wallop".

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• I like grit, I like love and death, I'm tired of irony. ... A lot of good fiction is sentimental. ... The novelist who refuses sentiment refuses the full spectrum of human behavior, and then he just dries up. ... I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass.

  Jim Harrison

  Love, Disappointment, Tired

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• Sadness is the matrix from which wit and irony spring; sadness is uncomfortable and creative, which is why consumer society cannot tolerate it.

  Germaine Greer

  Spring, Sadness, Creative

  Germaine Greer (2014). “The Whole Woman”, p.217, Random House

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• When you know that everything happens for the best, then everything that happens is okay with you. The irony of this is that when everything that happens is okay with you, you set up an energy field of such equanimity and harmony with the universe that the universal law of attraction draws more equanimity and harmony into your life.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Law Of Attraction, Energy, Fields

  FaceBook post by Neale Donald Walsch from Aug 24, 2015

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• It is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is the future they are innocent of. Fifty years on we look at them with the godly knowledge of how they turne dout after all - who they married, the date of their death - with no thought for who will one day be holding photographs of us.

  Ian Mcewan

  Photography, Godly, Years

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