Quotessence
Home / Topics / Inconsistency Quotes

Inconsistency Quotes

Browse 157 quotes about Inconsistency.

Related topics

MenIfsPeopleWorldCharacterHumansMindContradictionRealThinkingCasesDoeMayTrying

Inconsistency Quotes

“I am metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.”

Human NatureEmotionalSadQuietDespairSelf AwarenessHappyLoudMelancholyCynicalSkepticismSelf KnowledgeSkepticalPredictableSkepticInconsistentMirthCynicInconsistencySelf IdentityPsycheCruelPredictabilityTenderReliableBoisterousHuman Nature QuotesConflicting EmotionsBawdyHu Nature Quote
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
Create image

“It was as if he took the complexity of human beings as a personal affront, the maddening inconsistency of human beings, their contradictions which they made no attempt to wipe out or reconcile, their mixture of idealism and concupiscence, grandeur and pettiness, truth and lies. They were not to be taken seriously any more than a cockroach deserves serious consideration.”

PeopleHumansHumanityHuman BeingsComplexityInconsistencyContradictions
Book:Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Create image

“He can be made to take a positive pleasure in the perception that the two sides of his life are inconsistent... by exploiting his vanity. He can... enjoy kneeling beside the grocer on Sunday just because he remembers that the grocer could not possibly understand the urbane and mocking world which he inhabited on Saturday evening; and contrariwise, to enjoy the bawdy and blasphemy over the coffee with these admirable friends all the more because he is aware of a "deeper," "spiritual" world within him which they can not understand. You see the idea - the worldly friends touch him on one side and the grocer on the other, and he is the complete, balanced, complex man who sees round them all. Thus, while being permanently treacherous to at least two sets of people, he will feel, instead of same, a continual under-current of self-satisfaction... and that to cease to do so would be "priggish," "intolerant," and... "Puritanical.”

PrideLiesLifestyleVanityLabelsInconsistency
Book:The Screwtape Letters
Create image

“The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.”

CultureIndividualChangeTechnologyEconomySocietyRepublicanTraditionDemocratConservativeTraditionalReformConservatismPopular CultureInconsistencyLiberalIndustrializationProgressivismTraditional Values
Book:Industrial Society and Its Future
Create image

“If we were to trace the arc of this resplendent moment to its uncertain trajectory, we might arrive at a time 10,000 years hence in which our story is likely to be told, albeit in the past tense, with the requisite degree of speculation and inconsistency and according to the values, perceptions and prevailing paradigms swirling about its storyteller—who, most certainly, would be just as alien and unseemly to us as we, in our primitive ways, would seem to him... Of course, we can suppose there to be some level of idealization in the storytelling—even if he...were to examine fastidiously all records of our associations, contracts, interactions, transactions and endeavors, he would still come away with his own set of presumptions, in a manner, no different than the sort to be drawn away through the course of taking epistemological preference. Certain facts, agreements and events will unduly be assigned a preponderance of emphasis whilst others, though critical in their own time and to its chief actors, will be glossed over for their lack of sexiness to the keen observer of historical fact. Certain moments will be lost and others manufactured in their place, and these conscripted fabrications will define future idealizations of this moment of time—this, as you are sure to find, deeply critical moment in the history of our species.”

PropagandaSpeculationEpistemologyInconsistencyConfirmation BiasIdealization Of The PastHistorical Inaccuracy
Book:Inward and Toward
Create image

“It is a wonderful thing to be liked by a stranger, but without respect it is pointless. It is like pulling the pedals off a rose and throwing the stem at the person you like. It’s creepy, but had good intentions that suddenly experienced some strange form of verticillium wilt, during the climate change of their mood.”

StoriesHumorUnderstandingSocial MediaPityWritersPublishersJustifiedTeachersAuthorsDisrespectNovelsStrangersInconsistencyMoodyIndecisiveStrong Minded CharactersBizarre BehaviorThe Gods Of AwesomenessWeird Pickles
Author:Shannon L. Alder
Create image

“Judging types are in a hurry to make decisions. Perceiving types are not. This is why science doesn’t make any serious attempt to reach a final theory of everything. It always says, “Let’s do another experiment. And another. And another.” When will the experimentation ever end? When will scientists conclude that they have now collected easily enough data to now draw definitive conclusions? But they don’t want to draw any such conclusions. That’s not how they roll. Their method has no such requirement. That’s why many of them openly say that they do not want a final theory. It will stop them, they say, from “discovering” new things. Judging types like order and structure. They like decisions, conclusions, getting things done and reaching objectives. Perceiving types are doubtful and skeptical about all of that. They frequently refer to judging types as “judgmental”, which is literally perceived as a bad thing, “authoritarian”, “totalitarian”, “fascist”, “Nazi”, and so on. Perceiving types always want to have an open road ahead of them. They never want to actually arrive. Judging types cannot see the point of not wanting to reach your destination.”

PsychologyJudgingConsistentInconsistencyCompleteOpen EndedClosed EndedPercieving
Book:Extra Scientiam Nulla Salus: How Science Undermines Reason
Create image

“When the world is supporting them, their needs are getting met, they do not think there is anything wrong anyhow, and they are unable to see, hear, or feel the needs of others, the likelihood of change is close to zero. The primitive and emotional nature of a close personal relationship means that the lack of empathy, the rage, the distance, the control, and the inconsistency have tremendous power in shaping the life and the inner world of a person in a narcissistic relationship. Close relationships can activate the best and the worst in us, but the deep emotional demands of an intimate relationship are out of reach for a person with narcissistic personality disorder.”

RelationshipsMarriagePsychologyEmpathyDistanceControlEngagementNarcissismPartnerInconsistency
Book:Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Surviving a Relationship with a Narcissist
Create image

“...there ... remains a huge following [of Ayn Rand's philosophy] of those who ignore the indiscretions, infidelities, and moral inconsistencies of the founder and focus instead on the positive aspects of her philosophy. There is much in it to admire, if you do not have to accept the whole package... Criticism of the founder or followers of a philosophy does not, by itself, constitute a negation of any part of the philosophy... Criticism of part of a philosophy does not gainsay the whole.”

IfsThinkingDoePhilosophyWholeAcceptingMoralFocusHugeAspectCriticismRemainsFollowingAdmireFollowersFoundersInfidelityPackagesInconsistencyNegation
Author:Michael Shermer
Create image

“If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity. Instead of being an individual, they are a multitude. Like the color white that includes all colors, they tend to bring together the entire range of human possibilities within themselves. Creativity allows for paradox, light, shadow, inconsistency, even chaos -and creative people experience both extremes with equal intensity.”

PeopleIfsHumansDifferentLightTogetherIndividualWhiteCreativityCreativePossibilityColorEqualShadowChaosExtremesRangeComplexityParadoxIntensityMultitudesOne WordCreative PeopleInconsistencyColor White
Author:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Create image

“A rare book at once of great importance and wonderful to read.... Gould presents a fascinating historical study of scientific racism, tracing it through monogeny and polygeny, phrenology , recapitulation, and hereditarian IQ theory. He stops at each point to illustrate both the logical inconsistencies of the theories and the prejudicially motivated, albeit unintentional, misuse of data in each case.... A major addition to the scientific literature.”

BookLiteratureCasesStudyWonderfulTheoryMajorsRacismImportanceHistoricalDataFascinatingLogicalMotivatedMisuseInconsistencyTracingPhrenologyRecapitulation
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“Nothing that is not a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency, especially when it regards religion or party. In either of these cases, though a man perhaps does but his duty in changing his side, he not only makes himself hated by those he left, but is seldom heartily esteemed by those he comes over to.”

MenWorldLittlesDoeRealEyeLeftSidesPartyCasesCrimeDutyRegardHatedConsistencyInconsistency
Book:The spectator
Create image

“Is it stupidity or is it moral cowardice which leads men to continue professing a creed that makes self-sacrifice a cardinal principle, while they urge the sacrificing of others, even to the death, when they trespass against us? Is it blindness, or is it an insance inconsistency, which makes them regard as most admirable the bearing of evil for the benefit of others, while they lavish admiration on those who, out of revenge, inflict great evils in return for small ones suffered? Surely our barbarian code of right needs revision, and our barbarian standard of honour should be somewhat changed.”

MenNeedsShouldSelfEvilMoralPrinciplesSacrificeChangedReturnBenefitsStandardsRegardStupidityRevengeCodeUrgesAdmirationHonourCowardiceCreedsBlindnessAdmirableSelf SacrificeBarbariansCardinalsRevisionInconsistency
Book:Works: The study of sociology
Create image

“Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own rightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent.”

PeopleIdeasNationsCommonProjectsIntellectualWeakLogicSilentOppressionFeaturesPropagandaRegimesNew IdeasDistrustPersistentAlienationRelentlessAssertionAuthoritarianismIntimidationLightnessInconsistencyFree ThoughtDuetsStasisTotalitarian Regimes
Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
Create image

“Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.”

WritingMindHumansMayReasonSufferingFoundVirtueProduceGeniusEvidencePerformancesCuriosityAppearanceFollyHuman MindManifestTemptedRepentInfirmityInconsistency
Book:Selected poetry and prose
Create image

“There are some who affect a want of affectation, and flatter themselves that they are above flattery; they are proud of being thought extremely humble, and would go round the world to punish those who thought them capable of revenge; they are so satisfied of the suavity of their own temper that they would quarrel with their dearest benefactor only for doubting it.”

WorldWantDoubtProudCapableRoundsHumbleRevengeSatisfiedTemperFlatteryQuarrelsInconsistencyBenefactors
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
Create image

“I wonder why men can get serious at all. They have this delicate long thing hanging outside their bodies, which goes up and down by its own will. First of all, having it outside your body is terribly dangerous. If I were a man I would have a fantastic castration complex to the point that I wouldn't be able to do a thing. Second, the inconsistency of it, like carrying a chance time alarm or something. If I were a man I would always be laughing at myself.”

IfsMenFirstsLongBodyAbleChanceWonderLaughingDangerousSeriousComplexesYour BodyFantasticHanging OutDelicateUp And DownAlarmsInconsistencyWhy MeCastration
Book:Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono
Create image

“I have known several persons of great fame for wisdom in public affairs and councils governed by foolish servants. I have known great ministers, distinguished for wit and learning, who preferred none but dunces. I have known men of valor cowards to their wives. I have known men of cunning perpetually cheated. I knew three ministers who would exactly compute and settle the accounts of a kingdom, wholly ignorant of their own economy.”

MenPersonsThreeKnownEconomyWifeFameAccountsAffairFoolishWitKingdomsIgnorantMinistersSettlingServantCowardCouncilCunningDistinguishedCheatedValorInconsistencyPublic AffairsDunces
Author:Horace Walpole
Create image

“A critic may reject some miracle stories as legendary, and not others, with no inconsistency at all for the simple reason that even if one holds miracles to be possible, one need not hold legends to be impossible! There are other factors, literary and historiographical ones, that might lead a critic to conclude that even though miracles can happen, it does not appear that in this or that case they did.”

IfsNeedsMayDoeReasonStoriesMightHappensReligionSimpleCasesImpossibleMiracleCriticsFactorsRejectsLegendsLegendaryInconsistencyMiracles Can Happen
Book:Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity
Create image

“The agnostic has a very curious notion of religion. He is convinced that a man who says 'I believe in God' should at once become perfect; if this does not happen, then the believer must be a fraud and a hypocrite. He thinks that adherence to a religion is the end of the road, whereas it is in fact only the beginning of a very long and sometimes very rough road. He looks for consistency in religious people, however aware he may be of inconsistencies in himself”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenShouldBelieveLooksMayLongDoeEndsSometimesFactsHappensI BelieveReligiousPerfectNotionI Believe InConvincedBelieverCuriousRoughBelieve In GodFraudConsistencyAgnosticHypocriteInconsistencyI Believe In GodAdherenceEnd Of The Road
Book:Islam and the Destiny of Man
Create image

“Everybody have equal rights to a life of full flourishing. Philosophy slowly, slowly has given us arguments saying, look, you already committed to your own life flourishing, and you're being inconsistent if you don't expand it. So philosophy often works in trying to show us that there's an inner incoherence in our points of view. We're all committed to one thing when it comes to us and our own kind, but we're not willing to expand it and we're guilty of inconsistency.”

IfsTryingLooksKindPhilosophyShowsGivenViewsRightsOne ThingWillingEqualArgumentCommittedPoint Of ViewGuiltyEqual RightsInconsistentFlourishingInconsistencyIncoherence
Author:Rebecca Goldstein
Create image

“He, who, in view of its inconsistencies, says of human nature the same that, in view of its contrasts, is said of the divine nature, that it is past finding out, thereby evinces a better appreciation of it than he who, by always representing it in a clear light, leaves it to be inferred that he clearly knows all about it.”

KnowsHumansSaidLightPastViewsClearHuman NatureDivineFindingsAppreciationContrastRepresentingInconsistencyDivine Nature
Book:The Confidence-man: His Masquerade
Create image

“What a weak, credulous, incredulous, unbelieving, superstitious, bold, frightened, what a ridiculous world ours is, as far as concerns the mind of man. How full of inconsistencies, contradictions and absurdities it is. I declare that taking the average of many minds that have recently come before me ... I should prefer the obedience, affections and instinct of a dog before it.”

MenWorldShouldMindDogConcernWeakInstinctAverageAffectionRidiculousObedienceContradictionFrightenedAbsurdityAutobiographySuperstitiousInconsistency
Book:The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, Volume 4: 1849-1855
Create image

“Determined secularists view these as residual inconsistencies that they have not yet go around to extirpating and that may not be worth bothering about... Form the secularist perspective it may be that the essential battles have been won and excessive zeal in pressing a final mopping-up operation might only excited further public hostility.”

MayHas BeensMightChristianFormReligiousViewsPerspectiveBattleEssentialsFinalsExcitedDeterminedBotherOperationsHostilityZealInconsistencyResidualMoppingMopping Up
Author:Richard John Neuhaus
Create image