Opposition
Contrariety and conflict among things, ideas or persons.
Works to read
- Fragments by Heraclitus, c. 500 BCE
- Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius by Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1517 (published 1531)
- The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson, 1682
- Farewell Address and Selected Letters by George Washington, 1775-1799
- The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela, 1915
- Destruction and Creation and the OODA Loop Briefings by John Boyd, 1976-1995
Passages
that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.
— John Milton, Areopagitica
That the contrary of a good is an evil is shown by induction: the contrary of health is disease, of courage, cowardice, and so on
— Aristotle, Categories
The most distinctive mark of substance appears to be that, while remaining numerically one and the same, it is capable of admitting contrary qualities
— Aristotle, Categories
This imitation of the ancient Herculeses, Alexanders, Hannibals, Scipios, Caesars, and other such heroes, is quite contrary to the profession of the gospel of Christ
— François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel
Mathematical induction — i.e., proof by recurrence — is, on the contrary, necessarily imposed on us, because it is only the affirmation of a property of the mind itself.
— Henri Poincare, Science and Hypothesis
But the law is always striving to make one;--like an obstinate and ignorant tyrant, who will not allow anything to be done contrary to his appointment, or any question to be asked
— Plato, Statesman
Passages are verified quotations from the library that use one of these words: opposite, opposites, contrary, conflict. Sentences under “From the texts” are copied word for word from the full texts in this library. Read each in its context on the work's page.