Irony Quotes - Page 24

• He continues to teach because it provides him with a livelihood; also because it teaches him humility, brings it home to him who he is in the world. The irony does not escape him: that the one who comes to teach learns the keenest of lessons, while those who come to learn learn nothing.

  J. M. Coetzee

  Home, Humility, Doe

  J. M. Coetzee (1999). “Disgrâce”, Random House (UK)

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• That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.

  Christopher Moore

  Sarcasm, Differences, Spontaneous

  Christopher Moore (2009). “Lamb: A Novel”, p.149, Hachette UK

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• The irony of man's condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive.

  Ernest Becker

  Inspirational Life, Men, Anxiety

  Ernest Becker (2007). “The Denial of Death”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

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• A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless'.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Battle, Friendship Love, Literature

  Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.297, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• It is in the irony of things that the theatre should be the most dangerous place for the actor. But, then, after all, the world is the worst possible place, the most corrupting place, for the human soul. And just as there is no escape from the world, which follows us into the very heart of the desert, so the actor cannot escape the theatre. And the actor who is a dreamer need not. All of us can only strive to remain uncontaminated. In the world we must be unworldly, in the theatre the actor must be untheatrical.

  Minnie Maddern Fiske

  Heart, Soul, Dreamer

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• irony is an indispensable ingredient of the critical vision; it is the safest antidote to sentimental decay.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Vision, Decay, Ingredients

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• Wit is artificial; humor is natural. Wit is accidental; humor is inevitable. Wit is born of conscious effort; humor, of the allotted ironies of fate. Wit can be expressed only in language; humor can be developed sufficiently in situation.

  Agnes Repplier

  Humor, Fate, Effort

  Agnes Repplier (1893). “Essays in Idleness”, Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin

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• The irony of the information age is that it lends credibility to uninformed opinion.

  Stephen Coonts

  Age, Information, Opinion

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• When irony first makes itself known in a young man's life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle.

  Robertson Davies

  Powerful, Men, Drunk

  Robertson Davies (1996). “The Cunning Man”, Penguin Group USA

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• Never joke with the press. Irony does not translate into newsprint.

  Erica Jong

  Doe, Journalism, Translate

  Erica Jong (2013). “Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in Venice”, p.27, Open Road Media

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• What would we do without irony? Check out your own daily reliance on it, the foul-weather friend who's there for you when nothing else is.

  Robin Morgan

  Weather, Checks, Foul

  Robin Morgan (2014). “Saturday's Child: A Memoir”, p.334, Open Road Media

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• When I was young I had no means or time, and now I have the means and time, I have no youth.

  Bess Streeter Aldrich

  Mean, Youth, Young

  Bess Streeter Aldrich (1994). “A Lantern in Her Hand”, p.241, U of Nebraska Press

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• Irony is a qualification of subjectivity.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Subjectivity, Qualifications

  "On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, 1841.

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• Irony limits, finitizes, and circumscribes and thereby yields truth, actuality, content; it disciplines and punishes and thereby yields balance and consistency.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Yield, Discipline, Consistency

  "On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, 1841.

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• The presence of irony does not necessarily mean that the earnestness is excluded. Only assistant professors assume that.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Mean, Doe, Assistants

  "Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, February 28, 1846.

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• It would appear, from the best examples, that the proper way of beginning a preface to one's work is with a humble apology for having written at all.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Humble, Apology, Example

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• Among the Diaries beginning with the second quarter of our century, there is frequent mention of a lady then becoming famous for her beauty and her wit: "an unusual combination," in the deliberate syllables of one of the writers, who is, however, not disposed to personal irony when speaking of her.

  George Meredith

  Book, Becoming, Diaries

  George Meredith (1897). “Diana of the Crossways: A Novel”, p.51, Wayne State University Press

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• One can never be too rich or too thin' is an aphorism attributed to the Duchess of Windsor. Being both rich and thin is a difficult enterprise, indeed almost unprecedented as an ideal. Into the paradoxical gap between the capacity to spend money and the need to eat less steps a brilliant solution: 'light' food. In buying 'light' food we can pay more for what costs less to produce in the first place.

  Margaret Visser

  Light, Needs, Cost

  Margaret Visser (2010). “Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Mea”, p.109, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• The White House has now put together a website for kids. It's a website to teach kids how to manage a budget responsibly. The website is called ' Irony.gov. '

  David Letterman

  Kids, White, House

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• It is the specialist's task to talk about means, about centimeters. An artist's task is to talk about the goal, about kilometers, thousands of kilometers. The organizing role of art consists of infecting the reader, of arousing him with pathos or irony -- the cathode and anode in literature. But irony that is measured in centimeters is pathetic, and centimeter-sized pathos is ridiculous. No one can be carried away by it. To stir the reader, the artist must speak not of means but of ends, of the great goal toward which mankind is moving.

  Yevgeny Zamyatin

  Inspirational, Art, Moving

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• It's an irony that growing inequality could mean more money for philanthropy. In the US, quite a few of the ultra-rich have taken to heart the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie's comment that it's a disgrace to die wealthy.

  Geoff Mulgan

  Taken, Heart, Mean

  "Civil engineering" by Geoff Mulgan, www.theguardian.com. October 24, 2007.

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• Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think - no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There's an inherent irony.

  Aaron Belz

  Fall, Thinking, Hair

  "Cartographer of Word Galaxies". The Believer interview, logger.believermag.com. September 24, 2013.

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• I wonder if Bettie Page original gay cult had something to do with the ironies inherent in her image, as well as her innate fabulousness as an image.

  Mary Harron

  Gay, Pages, Wonder

  Source: susiebright.blogs.com

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• The irony is that the best thing we can do is, well one option, is to quit job we don't like. You don't always have to quit, and quite frankly, option two is to try to help others solve the problem that you are struggling with.

  Simon Sinek

  Jobs, Struggle, Helping Others

  "Why Leaders Should Always Eat Last – Simon Sinek Interview". Interview With Dan Schawbel, www.quickbase.com. February 19, 2014.

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• The show is not a history lesson or intellectual exploration. It is entertainment based on tension, irony and storytelling that is closely related to today’s life.

  Matthew Weiner

  Intellectual, Lessons, Today

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