Top 80+ Ironic Quotes From Across Literature And Culture
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Irony refers to a way of using words so that it expresses an opposite meaning than what it literally means.
Irony has often been used in literature and movies. Irony has different kinds of versions in literature, dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony.
The irony is related to the wit of a person. Hence, ironic quotes are quite witty. There is a difference between ironic quotes and sarcastic quotes. Sarcastic quotes are different from ironic ones because sarcastic quotes generally come with a condescending tone.
Ironic inspirational quotes, ironic love quotes and even life is so ironic quotes can show you the irony of life. Hilarious ironic quotes can be funny too. You could also take a look at ironic quotes from billionaires.
If you like this, check out intellectual quotes and intuition quotes.
Famous Ironic Quotes
Here are some famous ironic quotes. These are the most ironic quotes and can be ironic quotes about life, funny sarcastic quotes, and more. These are some of the best ironic quotes including ironic quotes from 'The Fault In Our Stars'.
1. "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."
- Voltaire.
2. "I really have to keep an eye on myself, because sometimes I think I might say something important."
- Leslie Nielsen.
3. "I quote others only in order the better to express myself."
- Michel de Montaigne.
4. "I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize."
- Steven Wright.
5. "If you never light the cigarette, you never give the thing that can kill you the power it needs to kill you."
- John Green,'The Fault In Our Stars'.
6. "If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things."
- Larry Page.
7. "He was one of the most supremely stupid men I have ever met. He taught me a great deal."
- John Fowles.
8. "They waged war for decades, never realizing that they were fighting for the same cause."
- Mary Liu.
9. "The most dangerous irony is, people are angry with others because of their own incompetence."
- Amit Kalantri.
10. "It's the contradiction of life, if I were with them, I would only wish to be far away. Now that I am far away, all I do is wish for one more day surrounded by them."
- Laura Fitzgerald.
11. "Whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation."
- Johnathan Swift.
12. "Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man."
- William Shakespeare, 'Julius Caesar'.
13. "'A planet doesn't explode of itself,' said drily
The Martian astronomer, gazing off into the air—
That they were able to do it is proof that highly
Intelligent beings must have been living there."
- John Hall Wheelock.
14. "Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself."
- Douglas Coupland.
15. "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
- Mark Twain.
Ironic Quotes About People
Here are some ironic quotes about creativity, people and the human condition. Famous ironic quotes about creating and expectation like Louis Lumière shows how the world changes with time. We also have isn't it ironic quotes, how ironic quotes and ironic quotes about love:
16. "He saw that it was an ironical thing for him to be running thus toward that which he had been at such pains to avoid."
- Steven Crane.
17. "The cinema is an invention without any future."
- Louis Lumière.
18. "The whole damn century would've made more sense backwards. Where we ended is worse than where we began."
- Rebecca Makkai.
19. "Irony takes nothing away from pathos."
- Gustave Flaubert.
20. "The irony of the Human condition is that we are so focused on reaching some point in our journey, some happiness, or some goal, that we seem to forget that the journey itself is where life happens"
- Unknown.*
21. "The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive."
- Robert A. Heinlein.
22. "Haven't you picked up on the irony of life by now? Things only just happen when you're not ready."
- Elizabeth Reyes.
23. "He had a sense of irony that ruled his life, made it impossible for him to use his considerable brains in any kind of serious job."
- Neal Stephenson.
24. "Isn't it ironic . . . we ignore those who adore us, adore those who ignore us, hurt those who love us, and love those who hurt us."
- Ellen Hopkins.
Witty Quotes
Here are some witty quotes that you can look into to sharpen your wits. These are quirky quotes that can really help build relationships.
25. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."
- Abraham Lincoln.
26. "Though sleep is called our best friend, it is a friend who often keeps us waiting!"
- Jules Verne.
27. "Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest."
- Isaac Asimov.
28. "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
- George Orwell.
29. "I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
- Unknown.*
30. "As the ironist does not have the new within his power, it might be asked how he destroys the old, and to this it must be answered: he destroys the given actuality by the given actuality itself"
- Søren Kierkegaard.
31. "A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away."
- Ellen Glasgow.
Ironic Quotes In 'Catch-22'
'Catch-22', by Joseph Heller, quotes on irony will give you a new perspective on the world around you.
32. “'They're trying to kill me,' Yossarian told him calmly. 'No one's trying to kill you,' Clevinger cried. 'Then why are they shooting at me?' Yossarian asked. 'They're shooting at everyone,' Clevinger answered. 'They're trying to kill everyone.'"
- 'Catch-22'.
33. "He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody."
- 'Catch-22'.
34. "The Texan turned out to be a good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him."
- 'Catch-22'.
35. "Anything worth dying for ... is certainly worth living for."
- 'Catch-22'.
36. "He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it."
- 'Catch-22'.
37. "Dunbar was working so hard at increasing his life span that Yossarian thought he was dead."
- 'Catch-22'.
38. "He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt."
- 'Catch-22'.
39. "Yossarian had stopped playing chess with him because the games were so interesting they were foolish."
- 'Catch-22'.
40. "While none of the work we do is very important, it is important that we do a great deal of it."
- 'Catch-22'.
41. "People have a right to do anything that's not forbidden by law, and there's no law against lying to you."
- 'Catch-22'.
42. "I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings."
- 'Catch-22'.
Ironic Quotes About Social Media
The world of social media comes with its own irony. Here are some quotes about it.
43. "Now we breathe irony like oxygen. Instagram is a platform that doesn’t so much encourage irony as demand it."
- Dylan Jones.
44. "Starting around 2013, however, lowercasing seemed to take on a new meaning. Instead of laziness or efficiency, it became a way of indicating attitude."
- Gretchen McCulloch.
45. "Irony, self-reference and hyperbole are the language of the social web, and any brand not fluent will inevitably be ignored. Brands can’t hope to join the conversation when they don’t speak the language."
- Brian Honigman.
46. "Occasionally, irony has been pushed to the margins by events so horrific, so tragic, that mordancy and ridicule were temporarily parked."
- Dylan Jones.
47. "The purpose of a camera is to capture memories, not replace them."
- Abhijit Naskar.
Ironic Quotes From 'Pride And Prejudice'
Jane Austen's 'Pride And Prejudice' is a famous novel and has ironic touches to it, from situational to dramatic. Here are a few quotes from it.
48. "It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
49. "Nobody can tell what I suffer! But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
50. "You are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
51. "You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
52. "Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
53. "She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
54. "She began now to comprehend that one was exactly the man who in disposition and talents would most suit her."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
55. "But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was."
- 'Pride And Prejudice'.
Funny Ironic Quotes
Some ironic quotes can be stupid and funny. Here are a few.
56. "Some people say funny things, but I say things funny."
-Don Rickles.
57. "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic"
- Kurt Tucholsky.
58. "Math was my worst subject because I could never persuade the teacher that my answers were meant ironically"
- Calvin Trillin.
59. "You know what a cubicle basically says? It basically says, like, 'You know what? We don't think you're smart enough for an office, but we don't want you to look at anybody.'"
- Bill Burr.
60. "Y'know how they say teenagers have no fear of death? That they're never gonna get hurt? Well not me, ok? I was born with the gift of fear."
- Champ, 'Goosebumps'.
61. "That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."
- George Carlin.
62. "If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?"
- Jerry Seinfield.
63. "It's one of the ironies of my otherwise straight forward life that I have fallen in love twice. Both times with people who insist on living in this godforsaken town."
- Lillian MacFarquhar.
64. "The only surprise I like is to not be surprised."
- Mr. Woodley.
65. "I'm not a big one for jokes. I can't tell a joke, believe it or not. If you gave me a thousand bucks and said, 'Don, get up at a party and tell a joke', I'm the worst."
-Don Rickles.
66. “Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War room!”
- President Merkin Muffley, 'Dr Strangelove'.
67. "Now that’s true poetic irony. I rush into battle to defend the fair name of Rose Larkin, and what does she do but fetch Robert to stop me."
- Franny Billingsley.
68. "If I had but the time and you had but the brain."
- Lewis Caroll.
69. "Labor Day is a great American holiday that people celebrate by going out and buying products made in China"
- David Letterman.
70."I'm being ironic. Don't interrupt a man in the midst of being ironic, it's not polite. There!"
- Ray Bradbury.
Quotes On Irony
Irony itself is a twisted subject, Here are some quotes on irony itself.
71. "That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm."
- Christopher Moore.
72. "Irony regards every simple truth as a challenge."
- Mason Cooley.
73. "I'm so sick of sarcasm and irony, I could kill! Sincerely, the real root of things is love and sacrifice."
- Ben Foster.
74. "Irony is wasted on the stupid."
- Oscar Wilde.
75. "An ironic man, with his sly stillness, and ambuscading ways, more especially an ironic young man, from whom it is least expected, may be viewed as a pest to society."
- Thomas Carlyle.
76. "We're conceived in irony. We float in it from the womb. It's the amniotic fluid. It's the silver sea. It's the waters at their priest-like task, washing away guilt and purpose and responsibility. Joking but not joking. Caring but not caring. Serious but not serious."
- Alan Bennett.
77. "Humor is everywhere in that there's irony in just about anything a human does."
- Bill Nye.
78. "If we chose to refuse irony, we risk becoming irony's dupe."
- Janet Beizer.
79. "Your favorite virtue? An appreciation for irony."
- Christopher Hitchens.
80. "I like grit. I like love and death. I'm tired of irony."
- Jim Harrison.
81. "The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates."
82. "Irony is the contrast between what's said and what happens."
- Claudia Gray.
83. "Life is too ironic to fully understand. It takes sadness to know what happiness is. Noise to appreciate silence & absence to value presence."
- Unknown.*
84. "Verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed."
- Abrams and Hartman.
85. "Irony, I feel, is a very high form of morality."
- Jean Stafford.
86. "Irony is the hygiene of the mind."
- Elizabeth Bibesco.
87. “A good proverb is often the marriage of a Truth to an Enchantment, where Humor is the groomsman and Irony the priest.”
- Giannis Delimitsos.
88. "Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time."
- Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel.
89. "Don’t underestimate the value of irony—it is extremely valuable."
- Henry James.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for ironic quotes then why not take a look at ['I.T. Crowd' quotes], or it is what it is quotes.
*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at hello@kidadl.com.
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Bachelor of Arts specializing in Journalism and Mass Communication, Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management
Moumita DuttaBachelor of Arts specializing in Journalism and Mass Communication, Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management
A content writer and editor with a passion for sports, Moumita has honed her skills in producing compelling match reports and stories about sporting heroes. She holds a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta University, alongside a postgraduate diploma in Sports Management.
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