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“Paradox is the sharpest scalpel in the satchel of science. Nothing concentrates the mind as effectively, regardless of whether it pits two competing theories against each other, or theory against observation, or a compelling mathematical deduction against ordinary common sense.”
“Since the beginning of time tricksters (the mythological origin of all clowns) have embraced life's paradoxes, creating coherence through confusion — adding disorder to the world in order to expose its lies and speak the truth.”
“The best paradoxes raise questions about what kinds of contradictions can occur — what species of impossibilities are possible.”
“A logical theory may be tested by its capacity for dealing with puzzles, and it is a wholesome plan, in thinking about logic, to stock the mind with as many puzzles as possible, since these serve much the same purpose as is served by experiments in physical science.”
“Paradoxes explain everything. Since they do, they cannot be explained.”
“The mind begins to boggle at unnatural substances as things paradoxical and incomprehensible.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to expectations. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox usually involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time. They result in "persistent contradiction between interdependent elements" leading to a lasting "unity of opposites".
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