Paradox Quotes - Page 2

• The existence of God is the ultimate paradox.

  Kedar Joshi

  Existence, Existence Of God, Ultimate

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• The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

  James A. Baldwin

  Education, Conscious, Educated

  "A Talk to Teachers". James A. Baldwin's address to a group of educators (October 1963), first published in the Saturday Review (December 1963), later quoted in "James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil" by Clint Smith, www.newyorker.com. September 23, 2017.

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• The great paradox is that our lack of faith in love and miracles is what blocks us from receiving love and miracles.

  Gabrielle Bernstein

  Block, Receiving Love, Miracle

  "May Cause Miracles: A 40-Day Guidebook of Subtle Shifts for Radical Change and Unlimited Happiness". Book by Gabrielle Bernstein, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2013.

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• Blind nature will nearly always select the most probable, but man can let the most improbable become actual.

  Hans Jonas

  Life, Nature, Men

  Hans Jonas, Lawrence Vogel (1996). “Mortality and Morality: A Search for Good After Auschwitz”, p.157, Northwestern University Press

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• The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Courage, Men, Order

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• Sometimes I'm confused by what I think is really obvious. But what I think is really obvious obviously isn't obvious.

  Michael Stipe

  Confused, Reality, Thinking

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• Paradoxes are the only truths.

  George Bernard Shaw

  George Bernard Shaw (2004). “Misalliance”, p.36, 1st World Publishing

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• That government is best which governs least.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  Civil Disobedience (1849) See Ralph Waldo Emerson 29; O'Sullivan 1; Shipley 1

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• Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Humanity, Contradiction

  'Lacon' (1820) vol. 1, no. 408

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• 

  Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

  Douglas Adams

  Funny, Education, Wisdom

  Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (2011). “Last Chance to See”, p.132, Ballantine Books

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• It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

  Herbert Hoover

  Freedom, Democracy, Ladders

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• Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Inspirational, Life, Teacher

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• And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

  Erica Jong

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  "Fear of Flying". Book by Erica Jong, 1973.

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• This is the greatest paradox: the emotions cannot be trusted; yet it is the emotions that tell us the greatest truths.

  Don Herold

  Emotion, Trusted

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• We live to survive our paradoxes.

  Gordon Downie

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• He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool.

  Brigham Young

  Fool, Rage, Intention

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• The thinker without a paradox is like a lover without a feeling: a paltry mediocrity.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Feelings, Mediocrity, Lovers

  Soren Kierkegaard (2017). “Philosophical Fragments”, p.24, Jovian Press

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• The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Faith, Pain, Loss

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• Everything is paradox. The danger is one-dimensional thinking.

  Lesley Hazleton

  Thinking, Danger

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• If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

  Lyall Watson

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wise

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• It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first.

  Hugh Black

  Kindness, Thoughtful, Lasting Happiness

  Hugh Black (1901). “Culture and Restraint”

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• Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.

  M. Scott Peck

  Life, Appreciation, Thinking

  M. Scott Peck (1998). “Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

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• Leadership is an elusive concept, hard to describe and impossible to prescribe. It is more evident in its absence, so that when leadership is needed, its lack is sorely felt.

  Patrick Dodson

  Leadership, Elusiveness, Impossible

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• When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.

  Julian Barnes

  Country, Pain, Book

  "Julian Barnes: my life as a bibliophile". www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2012.

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• Usually there is a paradox in what a character wants. A conflict is built deeply within them. And then you put them in motion, throw everything at them until they reveal themselves further.

  Dana Spiotta

  Character, Want, Conflict

  "Dana Spiotta’s Age of Innocence". Interview with Jeff Vasishta, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 11, 2016.

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