Irony

Time changes all things and cultivates even in herself an appreciation of irony.

— Irony

Ironic philosophies produce passionate works.

— Irony

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

— Irony

When irony first makes itself known in a young man's life, it can be like his first experience of getting drunk; he has met with a powerful thing which he does not know how to handle.

— Irony

The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize clear ideas.

— Irony

Irony is the gaiety of reflection and the joy of wisdom.

— Irony

There are no exact guidelines. There are probably no guidelines at all. The only thing I can recommend at this stage is a sense of humor, an ability to see things in their ridiculous and absurd dimensions, to laugh at others and at ourselves, a sense of irony regarding everything that calls out for parody in this world.

— Irony

Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic — if it is pulled out I shall die.

— Irony

Irony is the birth-pangs of the objective mind (based upon the misrelationship, discovered by the I, between existence and the idea of existence). Humor is the birth-pangs of the absolute mind (based upon the misrelationship, discovered by the I, between the I and the idea of the I.)

— Irony

Irony is a qualification of subjectivity.

— Irony

Irony limits, finitizes, and circumscribes and thereby yields truth, actuality, content; it disciplines and punishes and thereby yields balance and consistency.

— Irony

The presence of irony does not necessarily mean that the earnestness is excluded. Only assistant professors assume that.

— Irony

Irony is the cultivation of the spirit and therefore follows next after immediacy; then comes the ethicist, then the humourist, then the religious person.

— Irony

Irony, some say, is the art of juxtaposing incongruous parts. One needs a knowing distance. Irony presupposes detachment, which, in the case of Animal Rights, we may forgive Doctor Dillamond for being without.

— Irony

Given a long enough time, of course, a wide enough frame, there is nothing said or done, ever, that isn't ironic in the end.

— Irony

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

— Irony

He knew that women appreciated neither irony nor sarcasm, but simple jokes and funny stories. He was amply provided with both.

— Irony

Surely the cosmic irony that loves men's dullness because it alone can preserve them from madness, and retorts upon the cosmic terrors with a jest, is higher than gallantry and more enduring. It arrives at tolerance for all human shortcomings; it embraces high and low in its sympathies; it achieves urbanity as a final goal. It is the stuff of which great literature is made.

— Irony

God is an iron … If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.

— Irony

Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.

— Irony

Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment.

— Irony

If parody alone can adequately render the reality of our times, only irony offers us the freedom and detachment that are the essential condition of responsible analysis and action.

— Irony