#paradox

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. ↗

— Paul Valery

#capital #discovery #folly #inborn #metaphor

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

— Soren Kierkegaard

#away #paradox #professor #take #thinker

The trick is the paradox - turning your story inside out. Now if it is something that appears to be of total normality and then suddenly turns inside out and is a different thing all together then that's fun to write. ↗

— Nigel Kneale

#different #different thing #fun #inside #normality

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

#being a man #forgive #i #make #man

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

— Gail Sheehy

#finishes #out #paradox #place #prime

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. ↗

— Jack London

#beyond #cannot #comes #complete #ecstasy

Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.) ↗

— Blaise Pascal

#quip #risk #uncertainty #risk

I particularly scorn my fondness for paradox. I despise pessimism, narcissism, solipsism, truculence, word-play, and pusillanimity, my chiefer inclinations; loathe self-loathers ergo me; have no pity for self-pity and so am free of that sweet baseness. I doubt I am. Being me’s no joke. ↗

— John Barth

#paradox #pessimism

In this temporal existence, perfection is an illusion, regardless of those who believe in its concept. Perfection is devoid of any value. Perfection, after all, implies you've reached the zenith. There is no possibility or potentiality. There is no room for imagination. There is no ability to visualize a concept. Perfection is limited by its own nature, which in short, is zero. ↗

— Lionel Suggs

#paradox #perfection #imagination

Pops added,"you know, they say if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve." "And if you do, you never get the results you expected," (Katherine) replied. ↗

— E.A. Bucchianeri

#disappointments #election #elections #false-hope #funny