Paradox Quotes - Page 18

• She was a triumph over ugliness, so often more beguiling than real beauty, if only because it contains paradox.

  Truman Capote

  Real, Triumph, Ifs

  Truman Capote (2012). “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, p.44, Vintage

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• I am preoccupied with the possibility of creating art which functions in a public situation without compromising its private character of being antiheroic, antimonumental, antiabstract, and antigeneral. The paradox is intensified by the use on a grand scale of small-scale subjects known from intimate situations--an approach which tends in turn to reduce the scale of the real landscape to imaginary dimensions.

  Claes Oldenburg

  Art, Real, Character

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• Childhood hunger in America is as much a paradox as it is a tragedy. Why, in the wealthiest country in the world, should hunger darken the lives and dreams of 12 million children and their families? I believe that, when Americans learn the facts and understand how their involvement can make a difference, banishing childhood hunger will be a national, local and personal priority.

  Martin Sheen

  Dream, Country, Children

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• The paradox of the prophet: his very success is his failure. The prophet whose time has come no longer shocks; he entertains.

  Peter Drucker

  Vision, Prophet, Shock

  Peter F. Drucker (1999). “Adventures of a Bystander”, p.255, Transaction Publishers

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• What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh!

  Agnes Repplier

  Laughter, Dust, Laughing

  Agnes Repplier (1891). “Points of View”, Boston Houghton, Mifflin 1893.

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• The great paradox of determinism and free will, which has held the attention of the wisest of philosophers and psychologists for generations, can be phrased in more biological terms as follows: If our genes are inherited, and our environment is a train of physical events set in motion before we were born, how can there be a truly independent agent within the brain? The agent itself is created by the interaction of the genes and the environment. It would appear that our freedom is only a self delusion.

  E. O. Wilson

  Independent, Self, Brain

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• But nature - that is, biological evolution - has not fitted man to any specific environment. On the contrary, ... he has a rather crude survival kit; and yet -this is the paradox of the human condition - one that fits him to all environments. Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Men, Emotional, Animal

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• Some may claim that is it unscientific to speak of the operations of nature as "miracles." But the point of the title lies in the paradox of finding so many wonderful things ... subservient to the rule of law.

  Elisha Gray

  Nature, Lying, Science

  Elisha Gray (1899). “Nature's Miracles: Familiar Talks on Science”

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• On foundations we believe in the reality of mathematics, but of course, when philosophers attack us with their paradoxes, we rush to hide behind formalism and say 'mathematics is just a combination of meaningless symbols,'... Finally we are left in peace to go back to our mathematics and do it as we have always done, with the feeling each mathematician has that he is working with something real. The sensation is probably an illusion, but it is very convenient.

  Jean Dieudonne

  Real, Believe, Feelings

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• Let us face squarely the paradox that the world which goes to war is a world, usually genuinely desiring peace. War is the outcome, not mainly of evil intentions, but on the whole of good intentions which miscarry or are frustrated. It is made not usually by evil men knowing themselves to be wrong, but is the outcome of policies pursued by good men usually passionately convinced that they are right.

  Norman Angell

  War, Men, Knowing

  Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. June 12, 1935.

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• In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.

  Cyrano de Bergerac

  Philosophical, White, Black

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• It was time to expect more of myself. Yet as I thought about happiness, I kept running up against paradoxes. I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously -- and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself. I was always on the edge of agitation; I wanted to let go of envy and anxiety about the future, yet keep my energy and ambition.

  Gretchen Rubin

  Letting Go, Running, Ambition

  Gretchen Rubin (2015). “The Happiness Project (Revised Edition): Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun”, p.8, HarperCollins

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• There are some who maintain that trade will regulate itself, and it is not to be benefited by the encouragements or restraints of government. Such persons will imagine that there is no need of a common directing power. This is one of those wild speculative paradoxes, which have grown into credit among us, contrary to the uniform practice and sense of the most enlightened nations.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Encouragement, Government, Practice

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1875). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States : a Collection of Essays”, p.154

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• Be full of sorrow, that you may become hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter.

  Rumi

  Laughter, Joy, Sorrow

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• Everybody knows you're going to miss some. It's just the reality and the probability of it. It's the ultimate paradox for a kicker. You go out expecting to make every kick, but you also know it's probably not going to happen. So you have these two conflicting thoughts and realities. The really good kickers are the ones who can process that information. That's what I'm learning to do.

  Nate Kaeding

  Reality, Two, Missing

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• You know," King said, "I'm not much good at telling stories. That sounds like a paradox, but it's not; it's the reason I write them down.

  Stephen King

  Kings, Writing, Sound

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• Ayla, I looked for you all my life and didn't know I was looking. You are everything I ever wanted, everything I ever dreamed of in a woman, and more. You are a fascinating enigma, a paradox. You are totally honest, open; you hide nothing: yet you are the most mysterious woman I've ever met.

  Jean M. Auel

  Mysterious Woman, Honest, Mets

  Jean M. Auel (2010). “The Valley of Horses (with Bonus Content): Earth's Children, Book Two”, p.543, Bantam

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• To hide a passion totally (or even to hide, more simply, its excess) is inconceivable: not because the human subject is too weak, but because passion is in essence made to be seen: the hiding must be seen: I want you to know that I am hiding something from you, that is the active paradox I must resolve: at one and the same time it must be known and not known: I want you to know that I don't want to show my feelings: that is the message I address to the other.

  Roland Barthes

  Passion, Hiding Something, Essence

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• The paradox of knowledge is not confined to the small, atomic scale; on the contrary, it is as cogent on the scale of man, and even of the stars.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Stars, Knowledge, Men

  Jacob Bronowski (1976). “The ascent of man”

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• The paradox of the English country house is that its state of permanent decline, the fact that its heyday is always behind it, is part of the seduction, just as it is part of the seduction of books in general.

  Lev Grossman

  Country, Book, House

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• It's a paradox that most parents would never let their children associate with an undesirable person in their neighborhood, but many think nothing of letting them associate with the same type every day on TV.

  Randall Wright

  Children, Thinking, Parent

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• The next day, when I was sober, I thought again about the three of us, and about time's many paradoxes. For instance: that when we are young and sensitive, we are also at our most hurtful; whereas when the blood begins to slow, when we feel less sharply, when we are more armoured and have learnt how to bear hurt, we tread more carefully.

  Julian Barnes

  Hurt, Blood, Next Day

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• Bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Regret, Sleep, Insomnia

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”

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• Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Christmas, Beautiful, Home

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• Education in the United States is a passion and a paradox. Millions want it, and commend it, and are busy about it. At the same time they degrade it by trying to get it free of charge and free of work.

  Jacques Barzun

  Passion, Trying, United States

  Jacques Barzun (1959). “The House of Intellect”

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