Conflicting Ideas Quotes

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.

Volition . . . takes place only when there are a number of conflicting systems of ideas, and depends on our having a complex field of consciousness.

Truth affirms freedom of speech. Putin is no friend of reli - freedom of speech. Putin is an enemy of freedom of religion. The U.S. celebrates freedom of religion. Putin is an enemy of the free press. The U.S. celebrates free press. Putin is an enemy of political dissent. The U.S. celebrates political dissent and the right for people to argue free from violence about places or ideas that are in conflict.

If diversity is so important for freedom of thought and the robust exchange of ideas, why are students and administrators shutting down debates in the name of diversity? Why, indeed, are these attacks on the First Amendment led by deans of "diversity, equity, and inclusion?" Debate and conflict are essential to our adversarial system of justice—yet the protesters at Stanford want to hear only from those who agree with them. That is not what "diversity" was supposed to encourage.

I wish feminism wasn't so scary to people. It should be an evolving concept. I think it's an umbrella term to embrace conflicting ideas.

People who express themselves in paradoxes are in a strong position; and the more outrageous the paradox, in general the stronger the position.

Paradox likes contradictions with exits.

My good friend, the poet Kofi Natambu, once said, "Contradiction is how we operate."

Pitching always beats batting — and vice-versa.

So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will float light and right.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

Smack in the centre of contradiction is the place to be.

We were very different, and we disagreed about a lot of things, but he was always so interesting, you know?

I'm a walking contradiction. I am funny that way.

The two tendencies are antithetical in significant respects. These are distinctions that should be kept in mind, however one feels that the problems and dilemmas that constantly arise should be resolved.

We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't.

A lot of people don't give much thought to what they believe, and it's easy for them to hold what often are two conflicting ideas in their head at the same time.

Love is a complicated emotion because you can learn something or hear something that goes against what you have come to know personally. It can be very challenging to what you believe.

I think for me in terms of this kind of dichotomy you have to hold the sense of negative capability in your mind - which is Keats line about being able to hold two different ideas 'without any irritable reach after fact or reason.'

Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.

Science is like literature, a continuing dialog among diverse and conflicting voices, no one ever wholly right or wholly wrong, but a steady conversation forever provisional and personal and living.

There are sure to be two prescriptions diametrically opposite.

We have quite the same ideas. No; I think our ideas are quite different. But he has been most pleasant.

I'm a walking contradiction.

It is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.