Paradox Quotes - Page 9

• It is not, perhaps, unreasonable to conclude, that a pure and perfect democracy is a thing not attainable by man, constituted as he is of contending elements of vice and virtue, and ever mainly influenced by the predominant principle of self-interest. It may, indeed, be confidently asserted, that there never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.

  Alexander Fraser Tytler

  Men, Self, Perfect

  " Universal History: From the Creation of the World to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I" by Alexander Fraser Tytler, Petridge and Company, (p. 216), 1854.

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• Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Ironic, Literature, Irony

  "Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms" by Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, (p. 151), 1968.

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• It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.

  John Ruskin

  Important, Noble, Literature

  John Ruskin, Frederick William Roe (2013). “Selections and Essays”, p.231, Courier Corporation

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• Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Men, Forgiving, Ordinary

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• The great paradox of the 21st century is that, in this age of powerful technology, the biggest problems we face internationally are problems of the human soul.

  Ralph Peters

  Relationship, Powerful, Technology

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• Our Western society is showing its technological muscles in ever more threatening ways, but the experience of fear, anxiety and even despair has increased in equal proportion. Indeed, the paradox is that the powerful giants feel as powerless as a new-born babe.

  Henri Nouwen

  Powerful, Anxiety, Despair

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• That's the great paradox of living on this earth, that in the midst of great pain you can have great joy as well. If we didn't have those things we'd just be numb.

  Kathy Mattea

  Pain, Joy, Earth

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• When we begin to love and respect Great Mother Nature's gift to us of gayness, we'll discover that the bondage of our childhood and adolescence in the trials and tribulations of neitherness was actually an apprenticeship for teaching her children new cutting edges of consciousness and social change. In stunning paradox, our neitherness is our talisman, our fairie wand, our gift we bring to the hetero world to....transform their pain into healings; ...transform their tears to laughter: ...transform their hand-me-downs to visions of loveliness.

  Harry Hay

  Mother, Pain, Laughter

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• Failures of perspective in decision-making can be due to aspects of the social utility paradox, but more often result from simple mistakes caused by inadequate thought.

  Herman Kahn

  Mistake, Simple, Perspective

  Herman Kahn, Paul Dragoș Aligică, Kenneth R. Weinstein (2009). “The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking”, p.208, Lexington Books

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• What are the sources of poetry? Love and death and the paradox of love and death. All poetry from the beginning is about Eros and Thanatos. Those are the only subjects. And how Eros and Thanatos interweave.

  Erica Jong

  Love And Death, Love Poetry, Source

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• Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Loneliness, Opposites, People

  Parker J. Palmer (2012). “The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life”, p.68, John Wiley & Sons

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• Morality without a sense of paradox is mean.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Mean, Literature, Morality

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• It is a paradox that as we reach out prime, we also see there is a place where it finishes.

  Gail Sheehy

  Stars, Prime, Reach Out

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• The ancient sages never put their teachings in a systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise.

  Okakura Kakuzo

  Wise, Teaching, Talking

  Okakura Kakuzo (2012). “The Book of Tea: Classic Edition”, p.22, Tuttle Publishing

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• A paradox arises: the only way to meaning in freedom is through boundaries. The only way that boundaries make any sense at all is through freedom.

  Clark Moustakas

  Way, Existential, Boundaries

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• When the mathematician says that such and such a proposition is true of one thing, it may be interesting, and it is surely safe. But when he tries to extend his proposition to everything, though it is much more interesting, it is also much more dangerous. In the transition from one to all, from the specific to the general, mathematics has made its greatest progress, and suffered its most serious setbacks, of which the logical paradoxes constitute the most important part. For, if mathematics is to advance securely and confidently, it must first set its affairs in order at home.

  Edward Kasner

  Home, Order, Interesting

  "Mathematics and the Imagination".

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• The best therapy for emotional blocks to math is the realization that the human race took centuries or millennia to see through the mist of difficulties and paradoxes which instructors now invite us to solve in a few minutes.

  Lancelot Hogben

  Block, Math, Emotional

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• We are caught up in a paradox, one which might be called the paradox of conceptualization. The proper concepts are needed to formulate a good theory, but we need a good theory to arrive at the proper concepts.

  Abraham Kaplan

  Needs, Might, Caught

  Abraham Kaplan (1973). “The conduct of inquiry”, p.53, Transaction Publishers

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• I threw up again that night, half-afraid that my eyeballs would explode. But it was, by far, more important that I get rid of dinner. Of course, by then, throwing up was the only way I knew how to deal with fear. That paradox would begin to run my life: to know that what you are doing is hurting you, maybe killing you, and to be afraid of that fact--but to cling to the idea that this will save you, it will, in the end, make things okay.

  Marya Hornbacher

  Running, Hurt, Night

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• Politicians fascinate because they constitute such a paradox; they are an elite that accomplishes mediocrity for the public good.

  George Will

  Political, Mediocrity, Politics

  "Embracing Your Inner Mediocrity: Making Peace with Reality". Book by Vince Stone, 2009.

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• Evey Hammond: Who are you? V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask. Evey Hammond: Well I can see that. V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is

  Alan Moore

  Men, Asking, Mask

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• There is not a greater paradox in nature,--than that so good a religion [as Christianity] should be no better recommended by its professors.

  Laurence Sterne

  Hypocrisy, Religion, Christianity

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• There are hundreds of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States and in other countries, too. Wright lived into his 90s, and one of his most famous buildings, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, was completed just before his death. Wright buildings look like Wright buildings - that is their paradox.

  Jane Smiley

  Country, New York, Museums

  "Lively, daring genius" by Jane Smiley, www.theguardian.com. October 18, 2007.

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• It's such a paradox for them to say, "Oh, my God, I've thrown away my life," and continue to do that for the last month of their life. I shake them, physically shake them, and say, "What about now? What about now?"

  Patch Adams

  Healing, Health, Lasts

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• There is this paradox in fear: he is most likely to inspire it in others who has none himself!

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fear, Inspire

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.147

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