Oxymoron Quotes - Page 3

• Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.

  Peter Kreeft

  Sleep, Apes, Dies

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• Robert Torricelli, a powerful fund-raiser who helped raise more than $100 million for the Democratic party, took inappropriate gifts from a businessman, including an $8,000 gold Rolex watch, for which he was severely admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee in July. To recap: raising $100 million in contributions from gigantic corporations - ethical; taking a watch - unethical. That's the Senate Ethics Committee, an oxymoron since 1974.

  Jon Stewart

  Powerful, Party, July

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• I guess I'm a spiritual secularist, if that's not an oxymoron. My paths of secularism and spirituality are the same: I try to do the appropriate thing at each moment.

  Paul Krassner

  Spiritual, Trying, Path

  "In The Jester's Court". Interview with David Kupfer, www.thesunmagazine.org. February 2009.

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• I believe that 'advocacy journalism' is not an oxymoron. If that means that I'm going to disrupt the cable, partisan fracas of obsession over what this means from left and right, then so be it. I will be disruptive of it.

  Chris Cuomo

  Believe, Mean, Journalism

  "Chris Cuomo Is About to Get Mad as Hell on CNN". Interview with Sam Thielman, www.adweek.com. June 16, 2013.

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• 'Realistic dreamer' is not an oxymoron.

  Vanna Bonta

  Dream, Dreamer, Realistic

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• So about 80 years after the Constitution is ratified, the slaves are freed. Not so you'd really notice it of course; just kinda on paper. And that of course was at the end of the Civil War. Now there is another phrase I dearly love. That is a true oxymoron if I've ever heard one: "Civil War." Do you think anybody in this country could ever really have a civil war? "Say, pardon me?" (shoots gun) "I'm awfully sorry. Awfully sorry."

  George Carlin

  Country, Sorry, Philosophy

  "What Am I Doing in New Jersey?". Live album by George Carlin, 1988.

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• Suffering is an oxymoron. There is unfathomable peace and satisfaction in suffering for Christ. It is as though you have searched endlessly for your purpose in life and now found it in the most unexpected place: In the death of your flesh. It is certainly a moment worth of laughter and dance. And in the end it is not suffering at all. The apostle Paul recommended that we find joy in it. Was he mad?

  Ted Dekker

  Laughter, Mad, Joy

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• Placing "amicable" and "separation" together creates an oxymoron - we don't usually decide to end a partnership until the very sight of our soon-to-be ex fills us with disgust, misery, agony or a combination of all three.

  Mariella Frostrup

  Sight, Agony, Together

  "Should I stay friends with my ex?" by Mariella Frostrup, www.theguardian.com. August 18, 2013.

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• I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below.

  Madeleine Albright

  People, Democracy, Come Up

  "QUESTIONS FOR MADELEINE ALBRIGHT; State of the Secretary". Interview with Deborah Solomon, query.nytimes.com. April 23, 2006.

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• The whole notion of passwords is based on an oxymoron. The idea is to have a random string that is easy to remember. Unfortunately, if it's easy to remember, it's something nonrandom like 'Susan.' And if it's random, like 'r7U2*Qnp,' then it's not easy to remember.

  Bruce Schneier

  Ideas, Remember, Easy

  Bruce Schneier (2011). “Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World”, p.131, John Wiley & Sons

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• Conceptual art' is an oxymoron. Concepts are articulations of fact or supposition, not attributes of quality.

  Walter Darby Bannard

  Art, Quality, Facts

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• Bad leadership is an oxymoron.

  Joseph C. Rost

  Leadership

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• most of us persist in regarding leadership as synonymous with - indeed solely derived from - high position. Perhaps the notion of grass-roots leadership strikes us as too much of an oxymoron; confronted with apparent paradox, our imaginations fail. ... I believe that in the future, our ideas about the nature of leadership will undergo a radical transformation. As the instrumental use of knowledge continues to redefine the nature and purpose of organizations, we will begin to look at those on the front lines for leadership.

  Sally Helgesen

  Leadership, Believe, Organization

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• I think the term "Kantian constructivism" as an oxymoron. Kant was a constructivist about mathematics, but not about ethics.

  Allen W. Wood

  Thinking, Ethics, Mathematics

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• I learned why 'out riding alone' is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.

  Jane Smiley

  Horse, Riding, Equestrian

  "Jane Smiley: Everything I need to know I learned from a horse" by Jane Smiley, edition.cnn.com. September 5, 2011.

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• It's not unsporting to thrash a cowardly cad,' said Simmons. 'Everyone knows you don't fight like a gentleman.' 'That might be called an oxymoron,' Ramses said. 'Oh--sorry. Bad form to use long words. Look it up when you get home.' The poor devil didn't know how to fight, like a gentleman or otherwise.

  Barbara Mertz

  Sorry, Home, Fighting

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• Dead Max was the biggest oxymoron in history.

  James Patterson

  Max

  James Patterson (2012). “Maximum Ride: Nevermore”, p.90, Random House

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• You're lying through your fangs," Iggy accused. Fang tried to play innocent--but "innocent Fang" is an oxymoron, so it didn't work.

  James Patterson

  Lying, Play, Innocent

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• I'm still agnostic. But in the words of Elton Richards, I'm now a reverant agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred. The Sabbath can be a sacred day. Prayer can be a sacred ritual. There is something transcendent, beyond the everyday. It's possible that humans created this sacredness ourselves, but that doesn't take away from its power or importance.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Prayer, Believe, Everyday

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• That's the Senate Ethics Committee, an oxymoron since 1973.

  Jon Stewart

  Ethics, Rolex, Committees

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• The term congressional hearing is an oxymoron. No congressional hearing is ever called to gather information. Rather, it is an exercise designed strictly for posturing, by people who have already made up their minds, looking for ammunition to support their positions.

  Jack McDevitt

  Exercise, People, Support

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• An oxymoron? What's that? A moron who studies at Oxford?

  Johnny Carson

  Oxford, Study, Moron

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• For me taking a pragmatic decision when it comes to art is almost an oxymoron. The reason I first picked up a pen and wrote a story had nothing pragmatic in it.

  Etgar Keret

  Art, Decision, Stories

  "Suddenly: An Interview With Etgar Keret". Interview with Courtney Becks, www.raintaxi.com. Summer 2012.

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• Being both entrepreneurial and social is no longer an oxymoron, but rather a tautology.

  Jeremy Rifkin

  Social, Entrepreneurial, Tautology

  Jeremy Rifkin (2014). “The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism”, p.19, Palgrave Macmillan

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• I'm a city boy by nature - that's a big-ass oxymoron - but I do appreciate nature to the fullest because they say if you wanna see God just look around. We can't make this, it's all creation, so I appreciate that.

  Chali 2na

  Boys, Cities, Appreciate

  Source: www.hiphopcanada.com

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