“There are too many ironies in the fire!”

“It is an intolerable irony that societies that are anything but socialist should thus define what socialism is in the eyes of so many. It is an irony that has to be undone.”

“Let the rabbit of free enterprise out of its velveteen bag and too many people would have to be fired, too much idiocy exposed to the light of judgment or ridicule, too much vanity sacrificed to the fires of efficiency. Such a catastrophe obviously would threaten the American way of life, to say nothing of the belief in free markets.”

“The irony is that so many countries are competing in arms races, they don't even care how many people have been and will be victims.”

“Irony, which in Socrates’ case consists of saying “too little,” functions for him just as hyperbole, which is saying “too much,” functions for Nietzsche.”

“Too many times we’re looking for ways to get around deep waters and dangerous fires, rather than through them. Has this ever been your experience?”

“If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.”

“"You're never too old to dance, Dad… and you're never too old to dream."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say. Were you saying that with irony or for real?"”

“Today is different, and tomorrow the same.
It's hard to take the world the way that it came.
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along.
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong.
It's hard to take the heat.
It's hard to lay blame.
To fight the fire, while we're feeding the flames.
-- Second Nature (1987)”

“And make no mistake: irony tyrannizes us. The reason why our pervasive cultural irony is at once so powerful and so unsatisfying is that an ironist is impossible to pin down. All U. S. irony is based on an implicit "I don’t really mean what I’m saying." So what does irony as a cultural norm mean to say? That it’s impossible to mean what you say? That maybe it’s too bad it’s impossible, but wake up and smell the coffee already? Most likely, I think, today’s irony ends up saying: "How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean."”