Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation– the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.
Tags: intelligence impossible hopeless hopelessness inner-conflict ambivalence ambivalent implausible opposing-views
In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know.
Marsilio FicinoTags: doubt hope uncertainty ambivalence
And I can't be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.
J.D. SalingerTags: happiness grief confusion ambivalence
Don Bradman will bat no more against England, and two contrary feelings dispute within us: relief, that our bowlers will no longer be oppressed by this phenomenon; regret, that a miracle has been removed from among us. So must ancient Italy have felt when she heard of the death of Hannibal.
R.C. Robertson-GlasgowTags: miracle italy regret relief ambivalence england hannibal cricket bradman
Strangman shrugged theatrically. "It might," he repeated with great emphasis. "Let's admit that. It makes it more interesting—particularly for Kerans. 'Did I or did I not try to kill myself?' One of the few existential absolutes, far more significant than 'To be or not to be?', which merely underlines the uncertainty of the suicide, rather than the eternal ambivalence of his victim." He smiled down patronisingly at Kerans as the latter sat quietly in his chair, sipping at the drink Beatrice had brought him. "Kerans, I envy you the task of finding out—if you can.
J.G. BallardTags: suicide existentialism ambivalence
Most of us would like to see our enemies defeated and punished, and it is an ironic (and gruesome) human truth that many of us unconsciously entertain the same feeling about our friends and the members of our family. For there is a curious ambivalence about the human soul: it can love and hate the same object at the same time with almost equal force. Society suspects this. It half realizes that civilization is perpetually menaced because of this primary hostility of men toward one another. Therefore, culture has to summon every possible reinforcement against these aggressive hatreds. Hence the ideal command to love one’s neighbor as oneself. This commandment is the strongest defense against human hatred, and even though it is impossible to fulfill it completely, men cling to it. For they unconsciously realize that if this commandment were to be swept away, the world would be a place of chaos and desolation.
Joshua Loth LiebmanTags: ambivalence love-of-neighbor
Author says he suffered from both "a craving to be famous" and "a horror of being known to like being known.
T.E. LawrenceTags: ambition fame celebrity ambivalence
There she was, the mother of me, like a lit plinth,
Heavenly, though I was reared to find this kind
Of visitation impractical; she was an unbearable detail
Of the supreme celestial map,
Of which I had been taught that there was
No such thing.
Tags: mothers awe ambivalence divinity personal-cosmology still-life-with-aspirin
Dad scowls. "Phen." He says the name like it's a swear word. "Disgusting, cowardly creatures, the ambivalent. Worse than the fallen, in many ways." His eyes are so fierce it's a tad scary. "They have no conviction at all.
Cynthia HandTags: angels anger conviction ambivalence disgust cowardly
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