John Arbuthnot Fisher - Alexander Pope - Benjamin Disraeli - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Marianne Moore - Man Ray - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Ernest Becker - Robert McKee - Blaise Pascal - Christopher Hitchens - Aravind Adiga - Erwin Schrodinger - Alfred Russel Wallace - Lord Byron - George Orwell - Marcel Duchamp - Alex Gibney -
Never contradict
Never explain
Never apologise. John Arbuthnot Fisher, letter to The Times 5th September 1919
Woman’s at best a contradiction still. Alexander Pope, Epistles to Several Persons, 1735
I never deny; I never contradict; I sometimes forget. Benjamin Disraeli, re Lord Esher’s relations with Queen Victoria
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson
68,423. The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease.
Distaste which takes no credit to itself is best. Marianne Moore, 1887-1972, American poet
One is fruitful only at the cost of being rich in contradictions. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, Or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer
I like contradictions. We have never attained the infinite variety and contradictions that exist in nature. Tomorrow I shall contradict myself. That is the one way I have of asserting my liberty, the real liberty one does not find as a member of society. Man Ray
What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Erich Fromm wondered why most people did not become insane in the face of the existential contradiction between a symbolic self, that seems to give man infinite worth in a timeless scheme of things, and a body that is worth about 98¢. Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death
Angry contradiction of the patriarch is not creativity; it’s delinquency calling for attention. Difference for the sake of difference is as empty an achievement as slavishly following the commercial imperative. Robert McKee, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth. Blaise Pascal
The matter on which I judge people is their willingness, or ability, to handle contradiction. Thus Paine was better than Burke when it came to the principle of the French revolution, but Burke did and said magnificent things when it came to Ireland, India and America. One of them was in some ways a revolutionary conservative and the other was a conservative revolutionary. It’s important to try and contain multitudes. One of my influences was Dr Israel Shahak, a tremendously brave Israeli humanist who had no faith in collectivist change but took a Spinozist line on the importance of individuals. Gore Vidal’s admirers, of whom I used to be one and to some extent remain one, hardly notice that his essential critique of America is based on Lindbergh and ‘America First’ – the most conservative position available. The only real radicalism in our time will come as it always has – from people who insist on thinking for themselves and who reject party-mindedness. Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
Now there are some, and I don't just mean Communists like you, but thinking men of all political parties, who think that not many of these gods actually exist. Some believe that none of them exist. There’s just us and an ocean of darkness around us. I’m no philosopher or poet, how would I know the truth? It’s true that all these gods seem to do awfully little work – much like our politicians – and yet keep winning re-election to their golden thrones in heaven, year after year. That’s not to say I don’t respect them, Mr Premier! Don’t you ever let that blasphemous idea into your yellow skull. My country is the kind where it pays to play it both ways: the Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere, at the same time. Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
If a man never contradicts himself, the reason must be that he virtually never says anything at all. Erwin Schrödinger, What is Life? With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of you are wrong? It’s a possibility, you know. You must care about the truth, right? Well, the way to winnow through all the differing contentions is to be skeptical. I’m not any more skeptical about your religious beliefs than I am about every new scientific idea I hear about. But in my line of work, they’re called hypotheses, not inspiration and not revelation. Carl Sagan, Contact
There is, I conceive, no contradiction in believing that mind is at once the cause of matter and of the development of individualised human minds through the agency of matter. Alfred Russel Wallace
What an antithetical mind! – tenderness, roughness – delicacy, coarseness – sentiment, sensuality – soaring and grovelling, dirt and deity – all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay! Lord Byron
Double-think means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. The party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered, therefore he knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of double think, he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. George Orwell
I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste. Marcel Duchamp
Documentaries can embrace contradictions in a way that journalism can’t. Alex Gibney