Top 421 Contradictory Quotes & Sayings

It is not possible to live in this age if you don't have a sense of many contradictory forces.

If there is no contradictory impression, there is nothing to awaken reflection

Reality is contradictory. And it's paradoxical.

One realizes after a long time that, actually, we are contradictory, all of us.

Emotion is messy, contradictory... and true.

Life has all of these contradictory feelings and contradictory results. People spend their whole lives struggling to get what they think they want, and even if they get it, they find that it's either not what they wanted, or it comes with so many unwanted consequences. We're always shut off from pure joy.

Son, the phrase is self-contradictory; "sense" is never "common".

Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.

Evangelicals always assume that humor and faith are contradictory. It's OK to smile, to be nice, but not frivolous.

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life

Identity is as absurd and contradictory, I think - and certainly as mutable - as the human brain.

I like characters who are contradictory.

Some may try to argue that conservatism and libertarianism are contradictory perspectives. But I disagree.

The creative person pays close attention to what appears discordant and contradictory... and is challenged by such irregularities.

Only the #? gospel can do two seemingly contradictory things: destroy pride and increase courage.

My father was a very contradictory man.

I am a contradictory mess but I see it as my prerogative to change my mood like the weather.

People are content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each.

Real people are complex, contradictory, and have their own motivations - they can't just be mouthpieces for the writers' point of view.

Goering was a contradictory [and] complex ... character.

There's nothing more ironic or contradictory than life itself.

Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

Seeing clearly within himself and always able to dodge around the ends of any position, including his own, Shaw assumed from the start the dual role of prophet and gadfly. To his contemporaries it appeared frivolous and contradictory to perform as both superman and socialist, sceptic and believer, legalist and heretic, high-brow and mob-orator. But feeling the duty to teach as well as to mirror mankind, Shaw did not accept himself as a contradictory being.

One could think of a person who seems to have two opposing and contradictory sides to his personality; but it turns out that in the end the two sides are complementary. The same happens with an artist's work: deep down, what appear as contradictory sides are merely different registers, different aspects of the reality that the artist inhabits

It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.

I think it is optimistic and positive - it's quite contradictory in that sense - from the lyrics. Until you actually read them, maybe they can seem contradictory.

I was very shy and reserved, so it was a bit contradictory to get into politics.

Everything that is contradictory creates life

History is tangled, messy, contradictory. But is where we are.

We are by far the most contradictory of all primates. An animal with this much internal conflict has never lived on this earth.

The morality of compromise sounds contradictory.

Laughter is born out of the discovery of the contradictory.

The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French of all times.

Art and activism can be symbiotic. They don't have to be, of course; they can also be contradictory.

Reality and love are almost contradictory for me.

The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments and contradictory opinions with much impartiality.

There are servers, and there are people that are served. There's something contradictory about that in a democracy, certainly.

In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one and the same.

Sometimes our motivations can be quite hazy, contradictory and multi-faceted, in real life.

To be a preacher requires two apparently contradictory qualities: confidence and humility.

Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

I am constantly evolving. If I believe in a particular philosophy today, I may have a contradictory opinion tomorrow.

I realize I am contradictory: I have an independent filmmaker's sensibility and a Hollywood director's short-attention span.

I always have sort of been someone who has contradictory parts, and I haven't tried to uncomplicate myself. I've sort of let things seem contradictory, and sometimes it really confuses people. I don't know if it's working all the time, but I'd rather do that than try to sell myself as one thing or another.

In art, and maybe just in general, the idea is to be able to be really comfortable with contradictory ideas. In other words, wisdom might be, seem to be, two contradictory ideas both expressed at their highest level and just let to sit in the same cage sort of, vibrating. So, I think as a writer, I'm really never sure of what I really believe.

When it happeneth that a man signifieth unto us two contradictory opinions whereof the one is clearly and directly signified, andthe other either drawn from that by consequence, or not known to be contradictory to it; then (when he is not present to explicate himself better) we are to take the former of his opinions; for that is clearly signified to be his, and directly, whereas the other might proceed from error in the deduction, or ignorance of the repugnancy.

Contradictory as it seems, malnutrition is a key contributor to obesity.

We've got a great team sport, but we harp on about individuals. It's a bit contradictory.

The mark of the developed intellect is that it could accommodate two contradictory ideas at the same time.

[I am a] contradictory and paradoxical man.

Nothing in all the world is so nonsensical and contradictory, save mortals, that is, who live in the grip of the superstitions of the past.

Of course, if one ignores contradictory observations, one can claim to have an "elegant" or "robust" theory. But it isn't science.

It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory.

Contradictory strands create an essay that's richly ambivalent.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times.

Contradictory to my religion, I think, is journalism.

The contradictory remarks of politicians are forgotten; the more asinine predictions of pundits are buried with mercy.

I can't stand characters with contradictory information.

Consciousness of exclusion through naming is acute. Identities seem contradictory, partial, and strategic.