Oxymorons.
We live with contradictory terms and thoughts
in our daily lives. No where is this
more evident than in a book filled with them.
Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit
and Wisdom from History’s Greatest Wordsmiths by Dr. Mardy Grothe
gives us hundreds and hundreds of such examples.
Here
are a few of the ones I particularly like:
“I
love my country too much to be a nationalist.”
--Albert Camus
“Less
is more.”
--Robert Browning
“To
lead people, walk behind them.”
--Lao-Tzu
“A
nation is only at peace when it’s at war.”
--Hugh Kingsmill
“Why
do you have to be a non-conformist like everybody else?”
--James Thurber
“Please
accept my resignation. I don’t want to
belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”
--Grouch Marx
“A
verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
--Samuel Goldwyn
“I’m
an atheist and I thank God for it.”
--George Bernard Shaw
“Always
remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
--Margaret Mead
“We
have to believe in free will. We’ve got
no other choice.”
--Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Too
bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi
cabs and cutting hair.”
--George Burns
“It
is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to say.”
--Malcolm Margolin
“There
is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.”
--James Thurber
“You
can live in the past but there is no future in it.”
--Rabbi Kalman Packouz
“The
hardest thing is writing a recommendation for someone we know.”
--Kin Hubbard
“What
most men desire is a virgin who is a whore.”
--Edward Dahlberg
“Everybody
knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.”
--P.J.
O’Rourke
“Never
pray for justice, because you might get some.”
--Margaret Atwood
“Some
of the biggest failures I ever had were successes.”
--Pearl Bailey
“Nothing
is permanent but change.”
--Heraclitus
“Acting
is all about honesty. If you can fake
that, you’ve got it made.”
--George Burns
“That’s
what show business is – sincere insincerity.”
--Benny Hill
“The
history of success in our business is rejecting …And the history of failure is “the
sure thing.”
--Produce Tony Hill
“My
mom never saw the irony in calling me a son of a bitch.”
--Jack Nicholson
“Comedy
is simply a funny way of being serious.”
--Peter Ustinov
“First
I dream my painting, then I paint my dream.”
--Vincent van Gogh
“Inaction
may be the biggest form of action.”
--Jerry Brown
“The
best place to hide anything is in plain view.”
--Edgar Allan Poe
“I
have opinions of my own – strong opinions – but I don’t always agree with
them.”
--George H.W. Bush
“I
think anybody who doesn’t think I’m smart enough to handle the job is underestimating.”
--George W. Bush
“Fiction
reveals truths that reality obscures.”
--Jessanyn West
“A successful
book is not made of what is in it but what is left out of it.”
--Mark Twain
“Poetry
is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.”
--Percy Bysshe Shelley
“Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is
careful to conceal from one’s immediate circle.”
--Jean Rostand
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views,
provocative opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are
his alone and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should --
follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He
feels much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is
copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2019. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now
resides in Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book marketing blogs
by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and
recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. Also
named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a
panel on book publicity for Book Expo America.
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