No one is more liable to make mistakes than the man who acts only on reflection.
Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues
The elephant is the wisest of all animals because he remains motionless for long periods of time and thinks.
Don't just do something, stand there. Daniel Berrigan - on the importance of thought as well as action during the 1960's war protests.
Where there's smoke, there's fire.
can't judge a book by its
has never changed the history of the world. Benjamin Disraeli
is the fastest way.
we shake
with
fingers it is because we have burnt them so horribly before.
Pearsall Smith
that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.
Savile Lord Halifax
The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
Russell
The more things change the more they stay the same.
without
and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Bernard Shaw
No people do so much harm as those who go about doing good.
and old age will defeat enthusiasm and youth every time.
Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.
The fact that an opinion is widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.
Life is short but there is always time enough for courtesy. Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.
Wodehouse
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
I'm not sure if that is the organ of choice these days.
There is no such thing as a debtor prison in the U.S. - so what are you waiting for?
Half the failures of this world arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping. Julius and Augustus Hare
When we are not sure, we are alive.
Greene
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Do as I say, not as I do.
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Let me assert myself, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread. Alexander Pope
If you don't use it you lose it.
It's like riding a bicycle. You never forget.
one forgets where they buried the hatchet.
I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying I cannot forgive.
H. W. Beecher
stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.
To err is human, to forgive divine. Alexander Pope
Better to starve free than be a fat slave.
ain't nothin'
it ain't
can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
If you can conceive it and believe it you can achieve it.
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy
A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master.
you've heard two eyewitness accounts of an auto accident, you begin to worry about history.
Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott
It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you are an exceptionally good liar.
Jerome K Jerome Honesty is the best policy. Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin
Most lies are quite successful and human society would be impossible without a great deal of good natured lying.
The liars punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
The truth should be told, though it kill.
I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.
Penn
says.
He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Live as if there is no tomorrow.
Don't do today what can be put off till tomorrow.
rather die while I'm
than live while I'm dead.
all
beats the
It's as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman. William Makepeace Thackeray
a man hasn't found something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. Martin Luther King
is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him.
Eldridge
Say what you mean and mean what you say.
Men are like buses. Wait 30 minutes and another one will come by.
good man is hard to find.
and
to the
If you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.
in the White house office of Charles Colson, aide to Richard Nixon
carrot gets better results than the stick.
can catch more bees with
than
a man that can't direct you to a corner drugstore will get a respectful hearing when age has further impaired his mind.
Peter Dunne
age is when you know all the answers but nobody asks you the questions.
is no fool like an old fool.
youth but knew. If age could.
Estienne
never too old to learn.
The man told me to cheer up, things could always be worse, so I did, and they are.
A neat desk is the sign of a sick mind.
in
no
The wise man seeks not pleasure but the avoidance of pain.
it feels good do it.
better to die on your feet, than live on your knees.
Ibarruri (La Pasionaria)
you don't have time to do it right the first time, when are you going to have time to do it again.
makes perfect.
at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.
chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
with your strong suit.
Let's cross that bridge when we come to it.
It looked good on paper.
When schemes are laid in advance it is surprising how often the circumstances fit in with them.
Sir William Osler
who dies with the most toys wins.
can't take it with you.
as
life as
Antoine
like
de
de
is a promise. (a sacred trust.)
Much reading is an oppression of the mind and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.
People are governed by the head; a kind heart is of little value in chess. Nicolas-Sebastien Chamfort
The heart has its reasons which reason does not know. Blaise Pascal
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Franklin
Whoever thinks of going to bed before midnight is a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson
Behold the turtle, he makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
in where
fear
of
who believe that they are exclusively in the right are generally those who achieve something.
Huxley
When the fight begins within himself, A man's worth something.
Browning
I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
I don't believe less is more. I believe that less is less, fat fat, thin thin, and enough is enough. Stanley Elkin
good head is better than a hundred strong hands.
many chiefs and not enough Indians.
It's an equal failing to trust everybody and to trust nobody.
comes to him who hustles while he waits.
rich are different.
rich are different - they have more money.
Hemingway, in response to Fitzgerald
It's not whether you win or lose it's how you play the game.
Wit is far more often a shield than a lance.
Wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it.
K. Chesterton
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Bulwer - Lytton
are of course the most powerful drug used by mankind. Rudyard Kipling
and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
working
eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.
Cars are
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If it is still boring try if for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring but very interesting. Zen saying
Can’t is not part of my vocabulary.
you fall and break your legs don't come running to me.
There is nothing certain, namely that we can have nothing certain; and therefore it is not certain that we can have nothing certain. Samuel Butler
There was only one catch and that was Catch- 22, which specified that a concern for one's own
in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind... Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.
A normal adolescent isn't a normal adolescent if he acts normal. Judith Viorst
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself a fool.
I'd give my left arm to be ambidextrous. Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.
to mnierste@indy.rr.com or mail it to me at Contra-Diction, 9131 Whisper Bay Circle, Zionsville, IN 46077
Welcome to a collection of contradictory quotations. Sometimes putting two quotations together twists the way we think about them. Seeing these quotes beside each other may put them in a different light, make you laugh, or puzzle you. Enjoy.
Absence
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. T.H. Bayly
Out of sight out of mind. Homer Appearances
Clothes make the man. You can't judge a book by its cover. Cost
The best things in life are free. You get what you pay for.
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four
“Paradoxes are useful to attract attention to ideas.”
Mandell Creighton
Includes a special section of oxymorons and one line contradictions such as “I slept like a baby.”
Nothing
Bunel
The
The
The
rule.
a
Slogan of
was only one catch
that was
concern
face
immediate
Orr would be
and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to
If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.
There