"On foundations we believe in the reality of mathematics, but of course when philosophers attack us with their paradoxes we rush to hide behind formalism and say: 'Mathematics is just a combination of meaningless symbols…'" (Jean Dieudonné, The Works of Nicholas Bourbaki", The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 77 (2), 1970)
"Adaptability is an asset for biological survival, but paradoxically, the greatest threat to the quality of human life is that the human species is so immensely adaptable that it can survive even under the most objectionable conditions." (René J Dubos, "Reason Awake", 1970)
"Paradox is the technique for seizing the conflicting aspects of any problem. Paradox coalesces or telescopes various facets of a complex process in a single instant." (Marshall McLuhan, "Take Today: The Executive as Dropout", 1972)
"[...] mathematics and poetry move together between two extremes of mysticism, the mysticism of the commonplace where ideas illuminate and create facts, and the mysticism of the extraordinary where God, the Infinite, the Real, poses the riddles of desire and disappointment, sin and salvation, effort and failure, question and paradoxical answer [...]" (Scott Buchanan, "Poetry and Mathematics", 1975)
"The most pervasive paradox of the human condition which we see is that the processes which allow us to survive, grow, change, and experience joy are the same processes which allow us to maintain an impoverished model of the world - our ability to manipulate symbols, that is, to create models. So the processes which allow us to accomplish the most extraordinary and unique human activities are the same processes which block our further growth if we commit the error of mistaking the model of the world for reality." (Richard Bandler & John Grinder, "The Structure of Magic", 1975)
"Whenever the Eastern mystics express their knowledge in words - be it with the help of myths, symbols, poetic images or paradoxical statements-they are well aware of the limitations imposed by language and 'linear' thinking. Modern physics has come to take exactly the same attitude with regard to its verbal models and theories. They, too, are only approximate and necessarily inaccurate. They are the counterparts of the Eastern myths, symbols and poetic images, and it is at this level that I shall draw the parallels. The same idea about matter is conveyed, for example, to the Hindu by the cosmic dance of the god Shiva as to the physicist by certain aspects of quantum field theory. Both the dancing god and the physical theory are creations of the mind: models to describe their authors' intuition of reality." (Fritjof Capra, "The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism", 1975)
"The paradox of reality is that no image is as compelling as the one which exists only in the mind's eye." (Shana Alexander, "Talking Woman", 1976)
"It is a bizarre paradox we are facing, for we find that experimental scientists (who are supposed to be fair) at times make the Spanish Inquisition a model of fair hearings and unbiased judgment." (Lorraine L Cudmore,"The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell", 1977)
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