Contradiction Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old contradiction quotes, contradiction sayings, and contradiction proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul. Oscar Wilde
The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves. We live in denial of what we do, even what we think. We do this because we're afraid. Richard Bach
The thing about denial is that it doesn't feel like denial when it's going on. Georgina Kleege
A good addiction is a contradiction in terms. Anything people can't give up or must have is not healthy, no matter what the activity Jody Dean
Is a denial of this world, a severance from reality, an abdication, a means of redemption from, not for, life. Isaac Leib Peretz
Though the contradictions of war seem sudden and simultaneous, history stalks before it strikes. Something tolerated soon becomes something good. Anne Michaels
It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education. Paulo Freire
Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong. Ayn Rand
Contradictions do not perplex the logician. They arise because there are more rules to an open game than can be known. Donald Kingsbury
Denial is the inevitable consequence of those who are presented with disastrous scenarios without being offered an avenue for success. That is why we need to maintain a hopeful attitude. Ashavan
People with a style of denial and blaming are definitely on the list of unsafe people to avoid. Henry Cloud
The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time. Joan D. Vinge
Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning. CHARLES TREMPER
The contradictions the mind comes up against, these are the only realities, the criterion of the real. There is no contradiction in what is imaginary. Contradiction is the test of necessity. Simone Weil
When a contradiction is impossible to resolve except by a lie, then we know that it is really a door. Simone Weil
Confidence turns into pride only when you are in denial of your mistakes. Criss Jami
Denial is the way people handle what they cannot handle. Shannon L. Alder
The denial of suffering is, in fact a better definition of illness than its acceptance. M Scott Peck
It is a denial of the divinity within us to doubt our potential and our possibilities. James E. Faust
Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. Gilbert K. Chesterton
Contradiction is the essence of the universe. Fernando Pessoa
Denial of one appetite sharpens the others. Mason Cooley
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife. Douglas Adams
Denial, perhaps, is a necessary human mechanism to cope with the heartaches of life. Richard Paul Evans
Denial of childhood and denial of freedom are the biggest sins which humankind has been committing and perpetuating for ages. Kailash Satyarthi
Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction. Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth Blaise Pascal
Denial exists when three beliefs intersect:1. It cannot happen. 2. It cannot happen to you.3. It cannot happen to you now. Johnnie Dent Jr.
Denial is a very powerful thing. Jane Velez-Mitchell
Denial can be beautiful But only when you're a fantastic liar. Kim Holden
Denial can be a pathology or a survival mechanism - and sometimes it's both. Jane Fonda
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth. Blaise Pascal
Denial is a useful defense mechanism until it's not. Rosalind Kaplan
Denial. It's the only thing that keeps most of us from losing our sanity. Heena Rathore P.
Denial helps us to pace our feelings of grief. There is a grace in denial. It is nature's way of letting in only as much as we can handle. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
To live in perpetual darkness allows one to see things more clearly, if that is not a contradiction in terms. It has allowed me to look into men’s souls more deeply, to see them for what they are and not what they present to the world. It has been a most illuminating experience. Peter Darman
It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind. Naguib Mahfouz
What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth. Roland Barthes
He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual, he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. Thomas Jefferson
It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. Mark Twain
We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details. Jeff Bezos
In studying any complex process in which there are two or more contradictions, we must devote every effort to finding its principal contradiction. Once this principal contradiction is grasped, all problems can be readily solved. Mao Tsetung
No serious person is without contradictions. The test lies in the willingness or ability to recognize and confront them. Christopher Hitchens
A powerful idea communicates some of its power to the man who contradicts it. Marcel Proust
Contraries (are) poles of a unity. Hermann Hesse
We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also. Antisthenes
We take contradiction more easily than is supposed, if not violently given, even though it is well founded. Jean Paul Richter
Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct. Ralph Johnson
In formal logic, a contradiction is a signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory. Alfred North Whitehead
Nothing is demonstrable, unless the contrary implies a contradiction. Nothing, that is distinctly conceivable, implies a contradiction. Whatever we conceive as existent, we can also conceive as non-existent. There is no being, therefore, whose non-existence implies a contradiction. Consequently there is no being, whose existence is demonstrable. David Hume
The tragic and the comic are the same in as much as both are contradiction, but the tragic is suffering contradiction, and the comic is painless contradiction. Søren Kierkegaard
The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a particle. Living with contradiction is nothing new to the human being. Madeleine L'Engle
One must live in the middle of contradiction because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of a leaning into the light. Barry Lopez
Until we lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves. Henry Miller
Is it not our weakness that makes our strength? Lin Yutang
Life is a tragedy full of joy. Bernard Malamud
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. Lyall Watson
The most selfish thing we can do is to be unselfish because it frees us. Dean Ornish
My existence is caught up and inextricably bound up with yours ... A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. Desmond Tutu
When two texts, or two assertions, perhaps two ideas, are in contradiction, be ready to reconcile them rather than cancel one by the other; regard them as two different facets, or two successive stages, of the same reality, a reality convincingly human just because it is complex. Marguerite Yourcenar
Becoming is the essence of everything that lives. The actual is both a springboard and barrier to the possible. Fixtures are the enemies of life, which is always in flux. We are all fated, however, to generate this contradiction and live it through in ourselves. Karlfried Durckheim
There seems to be a philosophic contradiction between being busy and being wise. Those who are wise won't be busy, and those who are too busy can't be wise. The wisest man therefore is he who loafs most gracefully. Lin Yutang
We cannot avoid using power, cannot escape the compulsion to afflict the world, so let us, cautious in diction and mighty in contradiction, love powerfully. Martin Buber
If there were no contradiction and no struggle, there would be no world, no process, no life, and there would be nothing at all. Mao Zedong
Nothing which implies contradiction falls under the omnipotence of God. Thomas Aquinas
There can be no happiness as long as the things we do are different from the things we believe. Human beings cannot stand that contradiction inside. Fr. George Ehusani
The rose and thorn and sorrow and gladness are linked together. Saadi Shirazi
I’m passionate about animals and I hunt too. It’s like I save and I kill. I’m a walking, talking contradiction. I’m all about preserving the environment but I’m racing cars on the weekend. I tell everyone I’m a gun-loving hippy. Paul Walker
Becoming is not a contradiction of being but the epiphany of being. Amanda Coomaraswamy
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. Charles Dickens

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