Paradox Quotes - Page 7

• The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when our divisions are deeper.

  Cornel West

  Destiny, Race, America

  Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.4, Beacon Press

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• A poignant paradox is that sometimes the very desire to be a good mother or father will lead the parent to mistake duty for love.

  William Watson Purkey

  Mother, Father, Mistake

  William Watson Purkey (2000). “What Students Say to Themselves: Internal Dialogue and School Success”, Corwin

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• Enhancement not only allows the possibilities of a healthy fullness and exuberance, but of a rather ominous extravagance, aberration, monstrosity ... This danger is built into the very nature of growth and life. Growth can become over-growth, life 'hyper-life' ... The paradox of an illness which can present as wellness - as a wonderful feeling of health and well-being, and only later reveal its malignant potentials - is one of the chimaeras, tricks and ironies of nature.

  Oliver Sacks

  Health, Feelings, Growth

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• You have to think of your brand as a kind of myth. A myth is a compelling story that is archetypal, if you know the teachings of Carl Jung. It has to have emotional content and all the themes of a great story: mystery, magic, adventure, intrigue, conflicts, contradiction, paradox.

  Deepak Chopra

  Teaching, Adventure, Emotional

  "Deepak Chopra: The Two Questions Every Business Leader Has to Ask". Interview with Eric Schurenberg, www.cbsnews.com. January 25, 2011.

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• It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe... The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

  Steven Pressfield

  Race, Air, Self

  Steven Pressfield (2002). “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles”, p.37, Black Irish Entertainment LLC

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• This is the Democratic paradox: You want so much to run America and yet you seem not so fond of Americans.

  Peggy Noonan

  Running, America, Politics

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• You might find me outside with a can of hair spray, spraying it with the hope that the sun will burn a hole in the Earth. Another part of me hopes people will grow up and evolve and get smarter. That's the paradox of Marilyn Manson.

  Marilyn Manson

  Growing Up, Hair, People

  "A Dangerous Man? Marilyn Manson Says He’s Become His Own Nightmares". Interview with Dan Aquilante, nypost.com. November 17, 2000.

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• Surely the job of fiction is to actually tell the truth. It's a paradox that's at the heart of any kind of storytelling.

  Jeremy Northam

  Jobs, Heart, Fiction

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The primary paradox of Christianity is that the ordinary condition of man is not his sane or sensible condition; that the normal itself is an abnormality.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Ordinary, Normal

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.120, Simon and Schuster

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• It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Running, Men, Errors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.69

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• The Clinton paradox: How could a president so intelligent, so compassionate, so public-spirited and so conscious of his place in history act in such a stupid, selfish and self-destructive manner?

  George Stephanopoulos

  Selfish, Stupid, Intelligent

  George Stephanopoulos (1999). “All Too Human: A Political Education”

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• I like the idea of paradox, between the authentic fabrics and sophisticated shapes and between masculine and feminine. I'm not so much for sportswear. I think it's over.

  Hedi Slimane

  Thinking, Masculine And Feminine, Ideas

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• Periods of change are full of paradoxes. They're difficult but exciting, frightening but freeing. Letting go of old patterns that no longer work for us is exhilarating.

  Sue Thoele

  Letting Go, Patterns, Periods

  Sue Patton Thoele (2016). “The Courage to Be Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Emotional Strength and Self-Esteem”, p.122, Conari Press

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• Anarchy is all around us. Without it, our world would fall apart. All progress is due to it. All order extends from it. All blessed things that rise above the state of nature are owned to it. The human race thrives only because of the lack of control, not because of it. I’m saying that we need ever more absence of control to make the world a more beautiful place. It is a paradox that we must forever explain.

  Jeffrey Tucker

  Beautiful, Blessed, Fall

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• It is a great paradox and a great injustice that writers write because we fear death and want to leave something indestructible in our wake and, at the same time, are drawn to all the things that kill: whiskey and cigarettes, unprotected sex, and deep-fried burritos.

  Ariel Gore

  Sex, Writing, Burritos

  Ariel Gore (2007). “How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights”, p.41, Three Rivers Press

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• To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.

  Criss Jami

  Love, Inspirational, Marriage

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.97, Criss Jami

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• Instead, over the past thirty years, in the world of action and adventure sports, in situations where asses really were on the line, the bounds of the possible have been pushed further and faster than ever before in history. We've seen near-exponential growth in ultimate human performance, which is both hyperbolic paradox and considerable mystery. Somehow, a generation's worth of iconoclastic misfits have rewritten the rules of the feasible, not just raising the bar but often obliterating it altogether. And this brings up one final question: Where-if anywhere-do our actual limits lie?

  Steven Kotler

  Sports, Lying, Adventure

  Steven Kotler (2014). “The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• There is a belief that there is a hyperobject called Overmind, or God, that casts a shadow into time. History is our group experience if this shadow. As one draws closer and closer to the source of the shadow, the paradoxes intensify, the rate of change intensifies. What is happening is that the hyperobject is beginning to ingress into three-dimensional space.

  Terence McKenna

  Space, Shadow, Groups

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• Imagination, it turns out, is a great deal like reporting in your own head. Here is a paradox of fiction-writing. You are crafting something from nothing, which means, in one sense, that none of it is true. Yet in the writing, and perhaps in the reading, some of a character's actions or lines are truer than others.

  Amy Waldman

  Reading, Writing, Character

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• This is the paradox for me: in failure alone is there any possibility of success. I don't think I'm alone in this - nor do I think it's an attitude that only prevails among people whose work is obviously "creative".

  Will Self

  Attitude, Thinking, People

  "Falling short: seven writers reflect on failure" by Will Self, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2013.

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• The paradox of friendship is that it is both the strongest thing in the world and the most fragile. Wild horses cannot separate friends, but whining words can. A man will lay down his life for his friend but will not sacrifice his eardrums.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Friendship, Horse, Sacrifice

  Sydney J. Harris (1953). “Strictly personal”

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• I got a lot of paradoxes in my life. I guess I'm a real confused person, but there are some focused parts to my life now, and I'm slowly trying to put all the pieces back together.

  Stevie Ray Vaughan

  Confused, Real, Trying

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• Only when you lift a burden, God will lift your burden. Divine paradox this! The man who staggers and falls because his burden is too great can lighten that burden by taking on the weight of another's burden. You get by giving, but your part of giving must be given first.

  Spencer W. Kimball

  Fall, Men, Giving

  Spencer W. Kimball (1982). “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

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• Soderquist's Paradox: There are more horses' asses than horses.

  John Peers

  Horse, Peers, Ass

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• There is a paradox at the heart of our lives. Most people want more income and strive for it. Yet as Western societies have got richer, their people have become no happier.

  Richard Layard, Baron Layard

  Heart, People, Income

  "Happiness: Lessons from a New Science". Book by Richard Layard, April 7, 2011.

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