“Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.”

—  Groucho Marx

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms." by Groucho Marx?
Groucho Marx photo
Groucho Marx 117
American comedian 1890–1977

Related quotes

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Military intelligence was as nothing to military stupidity.”

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Diplomatic Immunity (2002), Chapter 2 (p. 32)

Swami Vivekananda photo

“A perfect life is a contradiction in terms.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI : Pratyâhâra and Dhâraṇâ

“For eudaimonism, an ethics of prohibition is a contradiction in terms.”

David L. Norton (1930–1995) American philosopher

Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 30

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

1970s, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973)
Context: So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here — not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.

“Being able to embrace contradictions is a sign of intelligence.
Or insanity.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Butcher Bird

“You cannot have humane Zionism, it is a contradiction in terms.”

Israel Shahak (1933–2001) Israeli academic

"An Interview with Israel Shahak" in Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. IV, No. 3 (1975), p. 3.

Ayn Rand photo

““Free competition enforced by law” is a grotesque contradiction in terms.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

The Objectivist Newsletter “Antitrust: The Rule of Unreason,” The Objectivist Newsletter, Feb. 1962, 1

David Hume photo
Paulo Freire photo

“It would be a contradiction in terms if the oppressors not only defended but actually implemented a liberating education.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1

Thomas Paine photo

“It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing.”

1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)
Context: It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

Related topics