"Illness is the opposite of freedom. It makes everything impossible."
Opposites quotes
Opposites
2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Opposites
Browse quotes that often appear alongside opposites — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Opposites quotes (page 18 of 102)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"I'm not for real revolutions, because they always bring you the opposite of what you want. You very seldom get what you want if you have a violent revolution."
"The rich and powerful countries are trying to wreck as much as possible. You know, go off the cliff as soon as you can. Extract every drop of hydrocarbons off the ground and destroy the environment. At the opposite extreme are countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, indigenous people around the world, and first nations in Canada and tribal people in India, campesinos in Colombia... They're trying to save the commons."
"There rises the moon, broad and tranquil, through the branches of a walnut tree on a hill opposite. I apostrophize it in the words of Faust; "O gentle moon, that lookest for the last time upon my agonies!" --or something to that effect."
"The desire for a strong faith is not the proof of a strong faith, rather the opposite. If one has it one may permit oneself the beautiful luxury of skepticism: one is secure enough, fixed enough for it."
"I get nostalgic for British negativity. There is an inherent hope and positive drive to New Yorkers. When you go back to Britain, everybody is just running everything down. It's like whatever the opposite of a hug is."
"Repose demands for its expression the implied capability of its opposite,--energy."
"You can be pitiful, or you can be powerful, but you can't be both"
"Public education was not founded to give society what it wants. Quite the opposite."
"When the opposite of your prayer occurs, your prayer hasn't been ignored; it's been considered & refused for your ultimate good."
"Abuse and neglect negate love. Care and affirmation, the opposite of abuse and humiliation, are the foundation of love. No one can rightfully claim to be loving when behaving abusively."
"Grievances cannot be redressed until they are known; and they cannot be known but through complaints and petitions. If these are deemed affronts, and the messengers punished as offenders, who will henceforth send petitions? And who will deliver them? Wise governments encouraged the airing of grievances, even those that were lightly founded Foolish governments did the opposite - to their peril. Where complaining is a crime, hope becomes despair."
"Convulsions in nature, disorders, prodigies, miracles, though the most opposite of the plan of a wise superintendent, impress mankind with the strongest sentiments of religion."
"Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it's something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn't it? Whether it's a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch... you are held"
"We want Realism's wealth of experience and Symbolism's depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites."
"A good man may make the best even of poverty and disease, and the other ills of life; but he can only attain happiness under the opposite conditions"
"A Soviet diplomat, like a skilled chess player, does not expect his opposite number to give up something for nothing, not even a pawn."
"Action and reaction are equal and opposite, and are expressed simultaneously. Sequentially they are repeated in reverse, the reaction becoming the action and the action the reaction."
"They all think any minute I'm going to commit suicide. What a joke. The truth of course is the exact opposite: suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I'm as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself -- ah then, I would. I can do without nembutal or murder mysteries but not without suicide."
"I feel so strongly about the truths Our Lord taught us by word and example that I cannot help but see how everything done according to that teaching always succeeds perfectly well, while things done the opposite way have a quite different result."