Paradox Quotes - Page 16

But I will say that most comedians are the saddest people I know. That is the biggest paradox to me.

Jean Reno

People, Comedian, Saddest

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Here is the paradox of Christian living. We must give up control of self to gain self control.

Andy Mineo

Christian, Giving Up, Self

FaceBook post by Andy Mineo from Jul 22, 2013

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It is a sad paradox that when male authors impersonate women ... they are said to be dealing with 'cosmic, major concerns' - but when we impersonate ourselves we are said to be writing 'women's fiction' or 'women's poetry.

Erica Jong

Writing, Males, Fiction

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The fact of simultaneously being Christian and having as my mother tongue Arabic, the holy language of Islam, is one of the basic paradoxes that have shaped my identity.

Amin Maalouf

Christian, Mother, Identity

Amin Maalouf (2001). “In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong”, p.16, Arcade Publishing

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The ocean is a place of paradoxes. It is the home of the great white shark, two-thousand-pound killer of the seas, and of the hundred-foot blue whale, the largest animal that ever lived. It is also the home of living things so small that your two hands might scoop up as many of them as there are stars in the Milky Way.

Rachel Carson

Stars, Ocean, Home

Rachel Carson (2011). “Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson”, p.6, Beacon Press

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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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The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.

V. S. Pritchett

Art, Hands, Stories

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Paradox is the sharpest scalpel in the satchel of science. Nothing concentrates the mind as effectively, regardless of whether it pits two competing theories against each other, or theory against observation, or a compelling mathematical deduction against ordinary common sense.

Hans Christian von Baeyer

Two, Common Sense, Mind

Hans Christian Von Baeyer (2004). “Information: The New Language of Science”, p.204, Harvard University Press

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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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It is a paradox of Life that all species breed past mere replacement. Any paradise of plenty soon fills to become paradise no more.

David Brin

Past, Paradise, Replacements

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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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To be entirely free, and at the same time entirely dominated by law, is the eternal paradox of human life.

Oscar Wilde

Law, Free Will, Human Life

Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.62, Oxford University Press on Demand

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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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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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Yes. The way people behave, the paradoxes, the contradictions. All these things we have to live with and still pretend that everything is only black or white. That, I think, is the most interesting thing in human nature. The fact that we have to do one thing and pretend something else. That’s when it becomes very interesting. If you can literally speak the way you feel, then it’s not interesting anymore. It’s when you have to lie that it becomes interesting.

Vincent Cassel

Lying, Thinking, White

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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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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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A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn away by all the centuries, although it serves as food for every epoch. Hence it is the greatest paradox in literature, the imperishable in the midst of change, the nourishment which always remains highly valued, as salt does, and never becomes stupid like salt.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Stupid, Teeth, Doe

Friedrich Nietzsche; (2016). “Human, All Too Human”, p.51, Xist Publishing

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Every good teacher and every good parent has somehow learned to negotiate the paradox of freedom and discipline. We want our children and our students to become people who think and live freely, yet at the same time we know that helping them become free requires us to restrict their freedom in certain situations.

Parker J. Palmer

Teacher, Children, Freedom

Parker J. Palmer (2012). “The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life”, p.87, John Wiley & Sons

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Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace. Does that seem paradoxical? Well, war is not afraid of paradoxes.

Elie Wiesel

War, Names, Doe

Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.165, Schocken

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