James Beattie Quotes

A master sees the bad in the good, and the good in the bad.

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

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

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

I sometimes feel like I'm caught in a vise. Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero. Others hate me.

Dali is like a man who hesitates between talent and genius, or, as one might once have said, between vice and virtue.

In contradiction and paradox, you can find truth.

In any case, I would never make a film that was only one thing. Even if it's my warmest, most romantic film, I still want it to have the more cynical view of things, showing the irony and absurdity of things that we consider normal.

Many people think I am an idiot. I think I am a genius.

Memory is a strange Bell—Jubilee, and Knell.

Everything has changed and nothing has changed.

What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.

To smell, though well, is to stink.

Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.

I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? Are you noisy with quiet times? Or are you quiet with noisy times? Are you happy with some sad days? Or are you sad with some happy days? Are you neat with some sloppy ways? Or are you sloppy with some neat ways? And on and on and on and on and on and on he went. I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.

Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colors I see.

Let the mad find wisdom in their madness for the sane, and let the sane be grateful.

The truth we have to face about the world we live in is that it's driven by profit, and contradictions and doubts are not profitable. They yield wisdom, but wisdom is not profitable. I find pleasure in doubt, but let's face it, my pleasure is not very profitable. To me, the truth is that things mean many things at once, and all of them opposed to each other, and all of them true.

Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time - beautiful?

Life is everything and nothing all at once.

My style is ambiguous and lucid.

Man must become better and more evil.

Life is a paradox. Every truth has its counterpart which contradicts it; and every philosopher supplies the logic his own undoing.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

I've always regretted that I'm made of contradictions. But, if contradiction is impossible to overcome, we have to accept both its ends.