The Wit & Wisdom of Oxymoronica
Stumble
This is a great little book. A collection of self-contradictory terms, phrases, or quotations; examples of oxymoronica appear illogical or nonsensical at first, but upon reflection, make a good deal of sense and are often profoundly true. As simple as some of them sound, they can really push the brain. The collection is divided into 14 chapters ranging in subject and author from wit and wisdom through love and sex and insults. Two thumbs up. Some examples I enjoyed:
Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded
Yogi Berra
Marriage is lonelier than solitude.
Adrienne Rich
The superfluous is the most necessary.
Voltaire
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
Margaret Mead
I shut my eyes in order to see.
Paul Gauguin
We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
Georg Hegel
We are never prepared for what we expect.
James Michener
To be believed, make the truth unbelievable.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The final delusion is the belief that one has lost all delusions.
Maurice Chapelain
What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.
Sydney J. Harris
When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.
Henry David Thoreau
Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.
Harry S. Truman
Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.
Oscar Wilde
War is a series of catastrophes which result in a victory.
Georges Clemenceau
First I dream my painting, then I paint my dream.
Vincent van Gogh
We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities.
Walt Kelly, From Pogo
A man chases a woman until she catches him.
Anonymous
I want peace and I’m willing to fight for it.
Harry S. Truman
Study the past, if you would divine the future.
Confucius, in Analects
Love is a kind of warfare.
Ovid
All works of art should begin…at the end.
Edgar Allan Poe
Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Hatreds are the cinders of affection.
Sir Walter Raleigh
I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?
Benjamin Disraeli
What you get free costs too much.
Jean Anouilh
Good fiction is that which is real.
Ralph Ellison
Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.
Samuel Beckett (in Endgame)
Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit & Wisdom From History’s Greatest Wordsmiths
Marty Grothe
$10
Amazon
