Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.

I think the phrase that resonates from 'Just One Year' is something I sort of live by: 'The truth and its opposite are flip sides of the same coin.'

I guess I found it useful to realise that everything is true at once, you know? You can pull back and say, 'Everything will be fine,' but you can also be in a situation and say, 'Not everything is going to be fine.'

I am not by any means a philosopher, although I have worked with some talented people in the discipline. But certain philosophical concepts deeply inform the way I think about the world. The idea of 'opposing truths at extremes' is a powerful concept that I came to appreciate in my twenties.

Is it good or bad?" she asked Issa. The wrong question, she knew. She just couldn't help herself. "It's both, sweet girl," said Issa. "like everything.

Contradiction itself, far from always being a criterion of error, is sometimes a sign of truth.

If you have a correct statement, then the opposite of a correct statement is of course an incorrect statement, a wrong statement. But when you have a deep truth, then the opposite of a deep truth may again be a deep truth.

There is always room for at least two truths.

I am not only convinced that what I say is false, but also that what one might say against it is false. Despite this, one must begin to talk about it. In such a case the truth lies not in the middle, but rather all around, like a sack, which, with each new opinion one stuffs into it, changes its form, and becomes more and more firm.

There's two heads to every coin.

You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.

There is no idea that does not carry in itself a possible refutation, no word that does not imply its opposite.

Everything is true and not true about everything. That’s one thing I’ve learned.

Everything is true; only the opposite is true too; you must believe both equally or be damned.

Being ambivalent doesn't mean that you're a relevatist, that anything goes; it just means that you show the complexity of life. Life is always complex.

All vital truth contains the memory of all that for which it is not true.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

There are trivial truths and the great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.

Contradiction was something I really like when it is embraced in that kind of philosophy.

Two seemingly incompatible conceptions can each represent an aspect of the truth ... They may serve in turn to represent the facts without ever entering into direct conflict.

In contradiction and paradox, you can find truth.

That's been a huge recurring thing in growing up - allowing two things to exist in the same space even though, instinctively, they might not be designated to.