Contrary Quotes

My solitude doesn't depend on the presence or absence of people; on the contrary, I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. View quote
Confucius
No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been. View quote
Hannah Arendt
There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery. View quote
Enrico Fermi
Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning. View quote
Dag Hammarskjöld
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first. View quote
Peter Ustinov
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young. View quote
W. Somerset Maugham
Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God. It doesn't comfort man. On the contrary, it encourages him in his folly, it transports him to the supreme regions where he is master of his own destiny. View quote
Marguerite Duras
Wealth is not without its advantages and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply. (James Baldwin)
Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object. View quote
Albert Camus
Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be. View quote
Benjamin Tucker
Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them. View quote
Salvador Dalí
The meaning of life is not to be discovered only after death in some hidden, mysterious realm; on the contrary, it can be found by eating the succulent fruit of the Tree of Life and by living in the here and now as fully and creatively as we can. View quote
Paul Kurtz
There are two contrary impulses which govern this man's brain-the one sane, and the other eccentric. They alternate at regular intervals. View quote
Franz Schubert
Not that she objected to solitude. Quite the contrary. She had books, thank Heaven, quantities of books. All sorts of books. View quote
Jean Rhys
When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. View quote
Peter Marshall
There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back... View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. View quote
Frédéric Bastiat
Relativism is not indifference; on the contrary, passionate indifference is necessary in order for you not to hear the voices that oppose your absolute decrees. (Karel Čapek)
The central ideas of Christianity, an angry God and vicarious atonement, are contrary to every fact in nature, as also to the better aspirations of the human heart; they are, in our present stage of enlightenment, absurd, preposterous, and blasphemous propositions. View quote
Virchand Gandhi
True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels them - the desire to do right - is precisely the same. View quote
Robert E. Lee
Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets. View quote
Michael Korda
Contrary to what the politicians and religious leaders would like us to believe, the world won't be made safer by creating barriers between people. View quote
Michael Palin