Simple Contradictions

[billroper]

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

The trick, of course, is that ideas that appear to be opposed to each other can sometimes both be true.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

And there you've named the difference between a paradox and a contradiction.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Oh, nicely put!

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is how I can be often pessimistic about humanity as a whole (because I think we are frequently violent, stupid, short-sighted, etc.) but like many individual humans and be optimistic about them. *grin*