100 Quotes About Irony

Irony is a common literary device used to convey a more complex truth, a situation where a seemingly normal occurrence contains a hidden meaning. The use of irony in literature, drama, and poetry can be traced back as far as the 5th century BC. Throughout the ages, the use of irony has always been relevant and it is still used to this day. Not only does it help express thoughts and feelings that people might not otherwise say or understand, it also points out the absurdities in life, showing us where we’re going wrong and how we can fix our mistakes.

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That's the nature of being a parent, Sabine has discovered. You'll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and -- in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the depth of your love -- you come to understand the tragic, unrequited love of your own parents. Ursula Hegi
Nobody steals books but your friends.
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Nobody steals books but your friends. Roger Zelazny
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What are all these?" Clary asked." Vials of holy water, blessed knives, steel and silver blades, " Jace said, piling the weapons on the floor beside him, "electrum wire - not much use at the moment but it's always good to have spares - silver bullets, charms of protetion, crucifixes, stars of David-""Jesus, " said Clary"I doubt he'd fit."" Jace." Clary was appalled. Cassandra Clare
I quote others only in order the better to express...
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I quote others only in order the better to express myself. Michel De Montaigne
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It’s sarcasm, Josh.”“Sarcasm?”“It’s from the Greek, sarkasmos. To bite the lips. It means that you aren’t really saying what you mean, but people will get your point. I invented it, Bartholomew named it.”“ Well, if the village idiot named it, I’m sure it’s a good thing.”“ There you go, you got it.”“ Got what?”“ Sarcasm.”“ No, I meant it.”“ Sure you did.”“ Is that sarcasm?”“ Irony, I think.”“ What’s the difference?”“ I haven’t the slightest idea.”“ So you’re being ironic now, right?”“ No, I really don’t know.”“ Maybe you should ask the idiot.”“ Now you’ve got it.”“ What?”“ Sarcasm. . Christopher Moore
If you think this Universe is bad, you should see...
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If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others. Philip K. Dick
Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the...
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Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it. Unknown
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
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I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize. Steven Wright
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What is your advice to young writers?” “Drink, fuck and smoke plenty of cigarettes. Charles Bukowski
In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared...
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In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language. Mark Twain
Give the People what they want - and they'll get...
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Give the People what they want - and they'll get what they deserve. The Kinks
Hell's bells, irony blows.
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Hell's bells, irony blows. Jim Butcher
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People often say that the English are very cold fish, very reserved, that they have a way of looking at things — even tragedy — with a sense of irony. There’s some truth in it; it’s pretty stupid of them, though. Humor won’t save you; it doesn’t really do anything at all. You can look at life ironically for years, maybe decades; there are people who seem to go through most of their lives seeing the funny side, but in the end, life always breaks your heart. Doesn’t matter how brave you are, how reserved, or how much you’ve developed a sense of humor, you still end up with your heart broken. That’s when you stop laughing. In the end there’s just the cold, the silence and the loneliness. In the end, there’s only death. Michel Houellebecq
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Look, Laszlo. I'll have the dentist with me, and I don't want to alarm her any more than necessary. So take Vanna out of the backseat and stick her in the trunk." Shanna halted. Her mouth dropped open. Her throat seized up, making it hard to breathe. I don't care how much crap you have in the trunk. We're not driving around with a naked body in the car." Oh no! She gasped for air. He was a hit man. Kerrelyn Sparks
To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys,
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To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, "I wish I had known this some time ago. Roger Zelazny
What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of...
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What would a racist call werewolves? Wargs? She kind of liked that one, but suspected that racist bastards didn't read Tolkien. Patricia Briggs
The most dangerous irony is, people are angry with others...
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The most dangerous irony is, people are angry with others because of their own incompetence. Amit Kalantri
A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of...
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A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading. Unknown
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Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever. Ernest Becker
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The human ego is the ugliest part of man. We lift up men who only show us darkness, and put down those brave enough to show us the light. Likewise, people engage in darkness when it is light outside, and acknowledge the light only when it is dark. We abandon those fighting for us to cheer behind those fighting against us. And, we only remember good people and God when it is convenient for us, and take them for granted because their doors are always open - only to chase after closed doors and personalities void of substance and truth. Suzy Kassem
Why should I struggle through hundreds of pages of fabrication...
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Why should I struggle through hundreds of pages of fabrication to reach half a dozen very little truths?'' For fun?'' Fun! ' He pounced on the word. 'Words are for truth. For facts. Not fiction. John Fowles
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A DEAD STATESMANI could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?from EPITAPHS OF THE WAR 1914-18 Rudyard Kipling
God hides the fires of hell within paradise.
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God hides the fires of hell within paradise. Paulo Coelho
LIII.What is the holiness of conversation? It isto master death.
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LIII.What is the holiness of conversation? It isto master death. Anne Carson
In order to grow, I promise you'll have to let...
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In order to grow, I promise you'll have to let go of some habits. 10 times out of 10, they'll be the habits you're most in love with. Brandi L. Bates
It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don't...
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It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don't know everything. Alexander McCall Smith
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.. nature did not make us to feel too good for too long (which would be no good for the survival of the species) but only to feel good enough to imagine, erroneously, that someday we might feel good all the time. To believe that humanity will ever live in a feel-good world is a common mistake. And if we do not feel good, we should act as if we do. If you act happy, then you will become happy–everybody in the workaday world knows that. If you do not improve, then someone must assume the blame. And that someone will be you. We are on our way to the future, and no introverted melancholic is going to impede our progress. You have two choices: start thinking the way God and your society want you to think or be forsaken by all. The decision is yours, since you are a free agent who can choose to rejoin the world of fabricated reality–civilization, that is–or stubbornly insist on . . what? That we should rethink how the whole world transacts its business? That we should start over from scratch, questioning all the ways and means that delivered us to a lofty prominence over the amusement park of creation? Try to be realistic. We made our world just the way nature and the Lord wanted us to make it. There is no starting over and no going back. No major readjustments are up for a vote. And no nihilistic head case is going to get a bad word in edgewise. The universe was created by the Creator, goddamn it. We live in a country we love and that loves us back. We have families and friends and jobs that make it all worthwhile. We are somebodies, as we spin upon this good earth, not a bunch of nobodies without names or numbers or retirement plans. None of this is going to become unraveled by a thought criminal who contends that the world is not double plus good and never will be and who believes that anyone is better off dead than alive. Our lives may not be unflawed–that would deny us a future to work toward–but if this charade is good enough for us, then it should be good enough for you. So if you cannot get your mind right, try walking away. You will find no place to go and no one who will have you. You will find only the same old trap the world over. It is the trap of tomorrow. Love it or leave it–choose which and choose fast. You will never get us to give up our hopes, demented as they may seem. You will never get us to wake up from our dreams. Your opinions are not certified by institutions of authority or by the middling run of humanity, and therefore whatever thoughts may enter your chemically imbalanced brain are invalid, inauthentic, or whatever dismissive term we care to assign to you who are only “one of those people.” So get the hell out if you can. But we are betting that when you start hurting badly enough, you will come running back. If you are not as strong as Samson– that no-good suicide and slaughterer of Philistines–then you will return to the trap. Do you think we are morons? We have already thought everything that you have thought. The only difference is that we have the proper and dignified sense of futility not to spread that nasty news. Our shibboleth: “Up the Conspiracy and down with Consciousness. Thomas Ligotti
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Maybe illusion and artifice–lies, even–are a necessary part of romance. Jody Gehrman
With every mistake, we must surely be learning.
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With every mistake, we must surely be learning. George Harrison
O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How...
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O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! William Shakespeare
A mouth of no distinction but well practiced, before I...
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A mouth of no distinction but well practiced, before I entered my teens, in irony. For what is irony but the repository of hurt? And what is hurt but the repository of hope? Joyce Carol Oates
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Somewhere fate laughs in her far-off country, because now I am the human and it is Grace I will lose again and again, immer wieder, always the same, every winter, losing more of her each year, unless I find a cure. Maggie Stiefvater
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There was no public to humiliate him here. They already knew he was a lunatic. They expected it. He could burst into howls of insanity, and they would only smile those gentle smiles at him and wrestle him into the chains. Laura Kinsale
Would you like me to [kill you] now?
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Would you like me to [kill you] now?" asked Snape, his voice heavy with irony. "Or would you like a few moments to compose an epitaph? J.k. Rowling
So if there is something on the planet that is...
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So if there is something on the planet that is worth living for, I'd better not miss it, because once you're dead, it's too late for regrets, and if you die by mistake, that is really, really dumb. Muriel Barbery
I'm not scared of death, I just don't want to...
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I'm not scared of death, I just don't want to seek it out. Thomas James Higgins
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The over-weight and out of shape guy who owned the house had apparently decided that having a half-million dollar house meant that he couldn’t afford to hire someone to clean out his gutters. Now he was dead with what looked to me like a broken neck after the ladder had slipped. He’d taken the plunge into his fancy landscaping–complete with rock garden. But hey, his fucking gutters were clean. . Diana Rowland
Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is...
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Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. Samuel Johnson
I paid, got up, walkedto the door, openedit. I heard...
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I paid, got up, walkedto the door, openedit. I heard the mansay, "that guy'snuts."out on the street Iwalked northfeelingcuriouslyhonored. Charles Bukowski
In the center lay the exploded carcass of a lonely...
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In the center lay the exploded carcass of a lonely sperm whale that hadn't lived long enough to be disappointed with its lot. Douglas Adams
I'm a survivor,
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I'm a survivor, " I said. But I didn't think that claim would carry much weight in an obituary. Tobias Wolff
If time is money and you wasted my time, then...
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If time is money and you wasted my time, then give me back my money! Ljupka Cvetanova
Famine sometimes increases the number of people who are overweight.
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Famine sometimes increases the number of people who are overweight. Mokokoma Mokhonoana
In the beginning there was the Word. Then we broke...
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In the beginning there was the Word. Then we broke it. Ljupka Cvetanova
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Repeat a lie a thousand times and it become a successful political campaign. Ljupka Cvetanova
They would sweep their poverty under the carpet if only...
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They would sweep their poverty under the carpet if only they had one. Ljupka Cvetanova
True friends chop the onions and cry together.
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True friends chop the onions and cry together. Ljupka Cvetanova
Women strive to be the change they want to see...
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Women strive to be the change they want to see in the mirror. Ljupka Cvetanova
I improvise therefore I exist!
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I improvise therefore I exist! Ljupka Cvetanova
Poor people! They build tunnels to reach the light.
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Poor people! They build tunnels to reach the light. Ljupka Cvetanova
If you don't understand it, it's art.
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If you don't understand it, it's art. Ljupka Cvetanova
Keep trying? I'd rather keep walking. I mean, whisky is...
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Keep trying? I'd rather keep walking. I mean, whisky is whisky Ljupka Cvetanova
What does your birth date say about you? You are...
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What does your birth date say about you? You are old! Ljupka Cvetanova
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Relate comic things in pompous fashion. Irregularity, in other words the unexpected, the surprising, the astonishing, are essential to and characteristic of beauty. Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony. The blend of the grotesque and the tragic are attractive to the mind, as is discord to blasé ears. Imagine a canvas for a lyrical, magical farce, for a pantomime, and translate it into a serious novel. Drown the whole thing in an abnormal, dreamy atmosphere, in the atmosphere of great days … the region of pure poetry. Charles Baudelaire
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Sometimes when everything seems atits worstwhen all conspiresand gnawsand the hours, days, weeksyearsseem wasted — stretched there upon my bedin the darklooking upward at the ceilingi get what many will consider anobnoxious thought:it’s still nice to be Bukowski. Charles Bukowski
Faith is a luxury for those who are able to...
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Faith is a luxury for those who are able to ignore what the rest of us must see every day. Pessimism, distrust, and irony are the holy trinity of my religion, irony in particular. Brando Skyhorse
That was the last cruel irony of Tobias’s life: that...
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That was the last cruel irony of Tobias’s life: that he doomed the woman he would have died to save. Cassandra Clare
People tell you to believe in yourself for your whole...
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People tell you to believe in yourself for your whole life, then call you arrogant when you begin taking their advice. Curtis Tyrone Jones
I have a headache. If only I had a crown...
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I have a headache. If only I had a crown to put on! Ljupka Cvetanova
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Actually–and this was where I began to feel seriously uncomfortable–some such divine claim underlay not just 'the occupation' but the whole idea of a separate state for Jews in Palestine. Take away the divine warrant for the Holy Land and where were you, and what were you? Just another land-thief like the Turks or the British, except that in this case you wanted the land without the people. And the original Zionist slogan–'a land without a people for a people without a land'–disclosed its own negation when I saw the densely populated Arab towns dwelling sullenly under Jewish tutelage. You want irony? How about Jews becoming colonizers at just the moment when other Europeans had given up on the idea?. Christopher Hitchens
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It strikes me often while I am in Iran that were Christian evangelicals to take a tour of Iran today, they might find it the model for an ideal society they seek in America. Replace Allah with God, Mohammad with Jesus, keep the same public and private notions of chastity, sin, salvation, and God's will, and a Christian Republic is born. Hooman Majd
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She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance - a misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. Jane Austen
If Socrates was alive today he would say : I...
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If Socrates was alive today he would say : I know that I know everything. That's what contemporary philosophers do. Ljupka Cvetanova
Many people know they're working, but not what they're working.
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Many people know they're working, but not what they're working. Ljupka Cvetanova
Some women walk towards a better future. Others have chauffeurs.
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Some women walk towards a better future. Others have chauffeurs. Ljupka Cvetanova
Luke is the sort of boy Taylor Swift could get...
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Luke is the sort of boy Taylor Swift could get at least three songs out of. Beth Garrod
Thank you for sending me a copy of your book....
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Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it. Moses Hadas
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There are few things more mysterious than endings. I mean, for example, when did the Greek gods end, exactly? Was there a day when Zeus waved magisterially down from Olympus and Aphrodite and her lover Ares, and her crippled husband Hephaestus ) I always felt sorry for him), and all the rest got rolled up like a worn-out carpet? Salley Vickers
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Shouldn't someone give a pep talk or something?' Minho asked..." Go ahead, " Newt replied. Minho nodded and faced the crowd. 'Be careful, ' he said dryly. 'Don't die.' Thomas would have laughed if he could, but he was too scared for it to come out.' Great. We're all bloody inspired, ' Newt answered. James Dashner
And it's really very difficult to kill someone when all...
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And it's really very difficult to kill someone when all your inner instincts would oblige you to take off your hat first! Susan Kay
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What do you take me for? That fool Socrates, who upheld the law at the cost of his own death — just to be ironic? I suspect that act was actually the result of his secret embarrassment of his hideous nose. Benson Bruno
People who didn't need people needed people around to know...
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People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were the kind of people who didn't need people. Terry Pratchett
You know, you're rather amusingly wrong.
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You know, you're rather amusingly wrong. Terry Pratchett
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You're not going to tell me they built fifty-foot-high killer golems, are you?"" Only a man would think of that. It's our job, " said Moist. "If you don't think of fifty-foot-high killer golems first, someone else will. Terry Pratchett
Just to keep the bad dreams at bay, she took...
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Just to keep the bad dreams at bay, she took a swig out of a bottle that smelled of apples and happy brain-death. Terry Pratchett
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...it’s just another one of those things I don’t understand: everyone impresses upon you how unique you are, encouraging you to cultivate your individuality while at the same time trying to squish you and everyone else into the same ridiculous mould. It’s an artist’s right to rebel against the world’s stupidity. E.a. Bucchianeri
But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps...
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But you see, a rich country like America can perhaps afford to be stupid. Barack Obama
(About sweeping).... What he was in FACT doing was moving...
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(About sweeping).... What he was in FACT doing was moving the dirt around with a broom, to give it a change of scenery and a chance to make new friends. Terry Pratchett
It would be the last thing he did if he...
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It would be the last thing he did if he beat my dog. Holly Hood
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[Or perhaps my friends should have realized that they shouldn't have left behind the FRICKING REASON FOR THEIR PROTEST! And that thought just cracked me up.] It was like my friends had walked over the backs of baby seals in order to get to the beach where they could protest against the slaughter of baby seals. Sherman Alexie
But though it had prevailed against such fierce adversaries as...
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But though it had prevailed against such fierce adversaries as fire and flood, it had fallen victim softly and swiftly to television in the 1960's. Kate Morton
I’m meeting the attic before I meet the girl.
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I’m meeting the attic before I meet the girl. Colleen Hoover
You could write a book about things that you can't...
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You could write a book about things that you can't find on-line. Maggie Stiefvater
Luckily, even as a young man not yet become himself,...
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Luckily, even as a young man not yet become himself, John Bridgens had two things besides indecision that kept him from self-destruction - books and a sense of irony. Dan Simmons
I don't spend money on books. I write them myself.
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I don't spend money on books. I write them myself. Ljupka Cvetanova
She lived in fear of ifonic endings. (91)
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She lived in fear of ifonic endings. (91) Anne Lamott
I would die for you, my love–in old age.
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I would die for you, my love–in old age. Ljupka Cvetanova
Hey, GreenHollyWood the mistake was mine that I added you...
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Hey, GreenHollyWood the mistake was mine that I added you as a friend... I thought that you are my friend... but your irony doesn't end. Deyth Banger
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When it comes to judging individuals, I do not like remarks such as 'too good to be true.' They speak as though one is rewarding the nature of evil. Yet, ironically, we still wonder where all the good people have gone. Criss Jami
People strive to be ahead of time just to get...
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People strive to be ahead of time just to get a chance to trip it. Ljupka Cvetanova
You can make fun of yourself and people will laugh...
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You can make fun of yourself and people will laugh at you. If you’re smart, you’ll end up as a comedian. If you’re not, you’ll end up as a clown. Ljupka Cvetanova
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For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men. Make them your examples, and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not weigh too nicely the perils of war."[ Funeral Oration of Pericles] . Thucydides
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Those darling byegone times, Mr Carker, ' said Cleopatra, 'with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How dreadfully we have degenerated! Charles Dickens
He saw that it was an ironical thing for him...
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He saw that it was an ironical thing for him to be running thus toward that which he had been at such pains to avoid. Stephen Crane
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The world had been divided into two parts that sought to annihilate each other because they both desired the same thing, namely the liberation of the oppressed, the elimination of violence, and the establishment of permanent peace. Hermann Hesse
Only in war does the madman become sane.
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Only in war does the madman become sane. Anthony Ryan
Will you stay in Germany?''No. Somewhere different.'' Like where?'' Somewhere...
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Will you stay in Germany?''No. Somewhere different.'' Like where?'' Somewhere there was no war. Ireland maybe. Audrey Magee
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He was shivering like a Wicklow sheepdog in a snowy yard, though the weather was officially 'clement'.The first layer of clothing was his jacket, the second his shirt, the third his long-johns, the fourth his share of lice, the fifth his share of fear. Sebastian Barry
Sometimes it might be kinder to kill a man, than...
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Sometimes it might be kinder to kill a man, than to take his dreams from him. Mika Waltari
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It's that feeling you get somehow knowing that something great is about to happen.. about to happen. While every passing day nothing great really does happen. You wake up, go to classes, study, sleep and wait for another monotonous day. You know the great day is not tomorrow, not even the day after, not even in a week or a month's time. But it says it will come soon, the way you live your life, one day at a time, only to realize 20 years have elapsed effortlessly. It will come soon, the way you meet someone without expecting or knowing that you are going to have so much fun together. It will come soon, the way dreams come true overnight- demanding years of perspiration, ironically. It will come soon like a gush of cold air in a hot afternoon. It will come soon like a stranger you feel you have already met. It will come like a guest who would be here to stay. It will come like an eternity, a serendipity, an irony. It will come when it is time for it to come, the way you fall asleep and dreams arrive from a distant land, surely but stealthily. . Sanhita Baruah