Absurdity

Examples

• So far as practice is concerned the attempt is an absurdity. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
• The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine; but the practice still continues, in compliance to the vulgar. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
• Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
• I before proved to you the absurdity of a single woman of your age proposing to accompany abroad a single man of mine. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
• The absurdity of the two last suppositions proves sufficiently the veracity of the firSt. Nor is there any fourth opinion. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
• Mr. Skimpole laughed at the pleasant absurdity and lightly touched the piano by which he was seated. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
• Good gracious-- Mr. Welland gasped, as if a second reading had been necessary to bring the monstrous absurdity of the thing home to him. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
• I began one note, in a six-syllable line, 'Oh, do not remember'--but that associated itself with the fifth of November, and became an absurdity. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
• I suppose she is under a delusion, and will plunge into some absurdity, after all. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• But at least, Mama, you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation, though you may not think it intentionally ill-natured. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
• He was dressed for the pantomimes in all the absurdity of a clown's costume. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
• According to others the good is pleasure; but then comes the absurdity that good is bad, for there are bad pleasures as well as good. Plato. The Republic.
• So each week beheld some fresh absurdity. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
• For they actually presented the absurdity of being less than his hopefulness had decided that they must be. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
• It was at this moment that the absurdity of his recent bewilderment struck upon his mind. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
• Meg's wedding has turned all our heads, and we talk of nothing but lovers and such absurdities. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
• When any opinion leads us into absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
• He would never have contradicted her, and when a woman is not contradicted, she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
• If we embrace this principle, and condemn all refined reasoning, we run into the most manifest absurdities. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
• And at others, what a heap of absurdities it is! Jane Austen. Emma.
• And yet in the absurdities which follow from some uses of the analogy, there seems to be an intimation conveyed that virtue is more than art. Plato. The Republic.
• I shall here endeavour to find some new absurdities in this reasoning. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
• Elizabeth loved absurdities, but she had known Sir William's too long. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
• On their first introduction, omnibuses were considered absurdities, and were ridiculed as painted hearses. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
• The follies of vanity entrap them all into absurdities. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
• This pretence, much favoured by the lady-visitors, led to the ghastliest absurdities. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
• I hope,' said Mr. Pickwick, 'that our volatile friend is committing no absurdities in that dickey behind. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
• Yes--and tragic--like most absurdities. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.

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