Irony Quotes - Page 5

• Do you see the irony at all, Tristan?’ I stare at him and shake my head. He seems determined not to speak again until I do. ‘What irony?’ I ask eventually, the words tumbling out in a hurried heap. ‘That I am to be shot as a coward while you get to live as one.

  John Boyne

  Coward, Tumbling, Determined

  John Boyne (2011). “The Absolutist”, p.285, Random House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have survivor skills. Some of that is superficial - what I present to people outwardly - but what makes people resilient is the ability to find humour and irony in situations that would otherwise overpower you.

  Amy Tan

  Skills, People, Survivor

  "Ghosts at my shoulder" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. March 02, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every man is a prisoner, and the greatest irony of all is to be the prisoner of another man.

  Sidney Sheldon

  Men, Prisoner, Every Man

  Sidney Sheldon (1992). “Three complete novels”, Wings

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• guess they forgot to program us with any respect for authority." "well, I have a highly developed sense of irony.

  James Patterson

  Authority, Program, Wells

  4 Copy quote

• I've learned not to hide behind a veil of irony - to talk about my work in a more honest way.

  Florence Welch

  Veils, Way, Honest

  7 Copy quote

• It would no doubt be very sentimental to argue - but I would argue it nevertheless - that the peculiar combination of joy and sadness in bell music - both of clock chimes, and of change-ringing - is very typical of England. It is of a piece with the irony in which English people habitually address one another.

  A. N. Wilson

  Sadness, People, Joy

  7 Copy quote

• The unhappy irony is that, while 'Glee' is hitting the heights, school arts funding is being slashed across the country due to the steep recession and declining tax revenues.

  James Wolcott

  Country, Art, School

  4 Copy quote

• When was the last time you used the words 'teach me'? Maybe not since you started first grade? Here's an irony about school: The daily grind of tests, homework, and pressures sometimes blunts rather than stimulates a thirst for knowledge.

  Jerry Spinelli

  School, Tests, Lasts

  25 Copy quote

• But mostly, I remembered what I’ve always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either tragic or comic. And it’s your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid? Gotta go with stupid. It’s not the easy way out. Self pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism. That’s tough. - Marco, Animorphs #35: The Proposal

  Katherine Applegate

  Mom, Regret, Stupid

  4 Copy quote

• And make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U.S. irony is based on an implicit "I don’t really mean what I’m saying." So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it’s impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it’s too bad it’s impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today’s irony ends up saying: "How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean.

  David Foster Wallace

  Powerful, Mistake, Coffee

  David Foster Wallace (2012). “A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again”, p.55, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.

  Lewis Hyde

  Voice, Use, Emergencies

  15 Copy quote

• Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech.

  Trevanian

  Fate, Ironic, Speech

  Trevanian (2005). “Shibumi: A Novel”, p.106, Broadway Books

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• When it was over, she gathered him in her arms. And told him the terrible irony of her life. That she had wanted to be dead all those years while her brother had been alive. That had been her sin. And this was her penance. Wanting to live when everyone else seemed dead.

  Melina Marchetta

  Brother, Years, Alive

  14 Copy quote

• Ghastly," continued Marvin, "it all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it. Look at this door," he said, stepping through it. The irony circuits cut in to his voice modulator as he mimicked the style of the sales brochure. " 'All the doors in his spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done.' " As the door closed behind them it became apparent that it did indeed have a satisfied sighlike quality to it. "Hummmmmmmyummmmmmmah!" it said.

  Douglas Adams

  Jobs, Cutting, Doors

  Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.67, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Walking over to Iggy, he poked him with his shoe. "Does anysing on you vork properly?" Iggy rubbed his forehead with one hand. "Well, I have a highly developed sense of irony." Ter Borcht tsked. "You are a liability to your group. I assume you alvays hold onto someone's shirt, yes? Following dem closely?" "Only when I'm trying to steal their dessert," Iggy said truthfully.

  James Patterson

  Hands, Shoes, Trying

  4 Copy quote

• The definition of black irony is Pro-lifers killing Doctors who do abortions

  Bill Hicks

  Funny, Humor, Doctors

  7 Copy quote

• Doug returned five minutes later and shook his head. "Sorry kid. She's single, but she doesn't think you're her type. She's into the Goth and vampire scene. You're too mainstream for her." I was sipping a glass of water and nearly choked on it. "That," said Peter, as soon as Doug was gone, "is what we call irony." "How is that possible?" exclaimed Cody. "I am a vampire. I should be exactly what she wants." "Yeah, but you don't look like one," I said. If Gabrielle had been a Trekkie, he might have had a shot tonight.

  Richelle Mead

  Sorry, Kids, Thinking

  Richelle Mead (2010). “Succubus Shadows”, p.8, Kensington Publishing Corp.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'd loved in so many bodies, but never one I loved like this. Never one that I craved in this way. Of course, this would be the one I'd have to give up. The irony made me laugh, and I concentrated on the feel of the air that popped in little bubbles from my chest and up through my throat. Laughter was like a fresh breeze - it cleaned its way through the body, making everything feel good. Did other species have such a simple healer? I couldn't remember one.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Laughter, Giving Up, Simple

  4 Copy quote

• Experiences that banish irony are much better for living than for writing.

  Michael Pollan

  Writing

  Michael Pollan (2009). “The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World”, p.171, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For a wonderful physical tie binds the parents to the children; and - by some sad, strange irony - it does not bind us children to our parents. For if it did, if we could answer their love not with gratitude but with equal love, life would lose much of its pathos and much of its squalor, and we might be wonderfully happy.

  E. M. Forster

  Gratitude, Children, Love Life

  E. M. Forster (2015). “Where Angels Fear to Tread”, p.109, Booklassic

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even things that are true can be proved.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ironic

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.3, Wordsworth Editions

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sure, nothing succeeds like success. Fact is, dearest, we are fools. We cling to an ideal no one wants or cares about. I am the greater fool of the two of us. I go on eating out my heart and poisoning every moment of my life in the attempt to rouse people's sensibilities. At least if I could do it with closed eyes. The irony is I see the futility of my efforts and yet I can't let go.

  Emma Goldman

  Letting Go, Eye, Heart

  5 Copy quote

• ...because really, sometimes the irony gods just get drunk.

  Libba Bray

  Drunk, Sometimes

  4 Copy quote

• There's a large strain of irony in our human affairs... Interwoven with our affairs is this wonderful spirit of irony which prevents us from ever being utterly and irretrievably serious, from being unaware of the mysterious nature of our existence.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Serious, Spirit, Mysterious

  10 Copy quote

• Goose neck is a delicacy. You have to at least try it. In fancy restaurants people pay up to fifty dollars a plate for this stuff.' And at our house we were force-fed it for free. Just another irony of life.

  Janette Rallison

  People, House, Trying

  Janette Rallison (2009). “All's Fair in Love, War and High School”, p.34, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

  6 Copy quote

  Show source