Ten Quotes on Paradoxes

A paradox is a self-contradictory statement. I blogged today about a paradox that I have observed in the present subprime turmoil which has rocked the U.S. economy and could possibly affect the rest of the world if it really worsens. It is by no means the only paradox I have seen in my lifetime. There are many, believe me. Life is full of paradoxes, if you'd only care to notice. Let me share with you what others have said about paradoxes:

The truth often sounds paradoxical. -Lao Tzu

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Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution. -Edward Teller

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Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things. -George Eliot

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The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo. -Soren Kierkegaard

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Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true. -Ram Dass

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The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace. -Marcel Proust

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There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so. -Charles Colton

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Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that there are paradoxes in mathematics. -Edward Kasner

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The best therapy for emotional blocks to math is the realization that the human race took centuries or millennia to see through the mist of difficulties and paradoxes which instructors now invite us to solve in a few minutes. -Lancelot Hogben

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Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex. -M. Scott Peck

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Quotes From "Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life"...Part 1

It seems I have spent the better part of my adult life trying to divine what my true calling in life is. When I was much younger, this search had led me to astrology, palm reading, numerology, runes and tea leaves. I have a small collection of books devoted to these esoteric arts, no kidding.

I was about to turn next to tarot cards when I stumbled upon this book by Gregg Levoy. I consider it my best find on the subject of calling and destiny. Let me share with you the passages that I marked in this book and see if you can relate to the wisdom contained therein. Actually, by selecting these quotes, I am not doing justice to Gregg Levoy’s book. If I only had my way, I’d quote everything here! That’s a measure of just how much I liked this book, which I bought on December 30, 1997. Here goes:

On “Breakthroughs”:

“The great breakthroughs in our lives in our lives generally happen only as a result of the accumulation of innumerable small steps and minor achievements.”

On “Passion”:

“Passion—or as Plato said, Eros (Love)—moves instinctively toward the creation of form.”

On “Calls” and “Callings”:

“Calls are essentially questions. They aren’t questions you necessarily need to answer outright; they are questions to which you need to respond, expose yourself, and kneel before.”

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“Callings keep surfacing until we deal with them.”

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“Generally, people won’t pursue their callings until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so.”

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The truest calls seem not only to keep coming back but also to make their way to us through many different channels, so we can use this as a starting point.”

On “Enemies”:

“…our ‘enemies’—whatever forces thwart us—provide us with the true tests of our spirit.”

On “Stage Fright”:

“..stage fright only happens to people who have something they desperately want to say, otherwise they don’t have enough at stake to warrant being scared.”

On “Paradox”:

“If you can hold paradox…you can hold tremendous energy within you and be a force for mediation to the world.”

On “Dreams”:

“To ignore dreams is to hide the sculptor’s tools, to tear out pages from our own stories, to drive with our tailpipes dragging on the ground. If we ignore dreams we cut ourselves off from the place from which calls emanate.”

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“They’re meaning machines, and they never lie.”

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“Dreams tell us how we really feel about something.”

On “Sickness”:

“ …sickness is often the soul’s way of indicating that something is missing in our lives.”

On “Chance”:

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”

On “Synchronicities”:

“Synchronicities are minor miracles, little mysteries that point to a bigger one, perhaps a central one, of which we are a part.”

On “Impulses”:

“ If you feel two impulses, go with the one that has the greatest risk for you. It will be by far the most interesting.”

On “Journeys”:

“A geographical journey is symbolic of an inner journey for which we long.”

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“Spiritual journeys, like stories, have at their core a central question—as do our lives—and if we understand not even the answers but merely the questions that animate our own journeys, we’ve understood a lot.”

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“At a deep level, we all associate journeying with circularity.”

On “Fear”:

“…the thing we most fear is the thing we must do.”

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“Wherever our most primal fears reside….chnaces are good that beneath them lie gems of wisdom and maybe a vision or a calling.”

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“Wherever you stumble—on a tree root, on a rock, on fear or shame or vulnerability, on someone else’s words, on the truth—dig there.”

On “Life”:

“…the way we spend our days is the way we spend our lives. The way we live our lives also depends on the questions we ask.”

On “Opposites” and “Contrasts”:

“..after big openings often come big closings. After highs, lows. After breakthroughs, breakdowns.”

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“Intense fights often follow intense intimacy.”

On “Vision”:

“Vision, if it is anything, is your life story in action.”


--Gregg Levoy