26 Famous Paradoxes That Might Make You Say “Wait. What?!”

Not everything in life is meant to make sense. Or is it? The answer depends largely on who you ask. In the blue corner, those who are willing to not sweat the small stuff and let some sh*t slide. In the red corner, team "there must be a logical explanation for this utterly confusing contradiction."

Henry Dudeney once wrote: "A child asked, 'Can God do everything?' On receiving an affirmative reply, she at once said: 'Then can He make a stone so heavy that He can’t lift it?'"

Some would reply "yes." Others would say "no." A few might warn the child not to question faith.

If I told you "This sentence is a lie," would you believe me? It's the classic liar paradox, another contradictory statement that might get your head spinning. It's derived from something the Cretan prophet Epimenides said in the 6th century BCE: "All Cretans are liars."

"If Epimenides’ statement is taken to imply that all statements made by Cretans are false, then, since Epimenides was a Cretan, his statement is false (i.e., not all Cretans are liars)," explains Britannica.

If the sentence is true, then it is false, and if it is false, then it is true. Let that sink in, or swirl about, as you keep scrolling...

The Hedgehog's Dilemma is a logical paradox that actually might make sense to many of us. It's tells us that when hedgehogs or porcupines get too close to each other, they end up getting hurt or hurting each other. It's a metaphor for the human inability to break down all of one's inner walls towards others.

"A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter, but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. However, the cold drove them together again, when just the same thing happened. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another," wrote philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer adds that in the same way, humans come together seeking society, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature.

"The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse is the code of politeness and fine manners, and those who transgress it are roughly told—in the English phrase—to keep their distance," wrote the philosopher. "By this arrangement, the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied, but then people do not get pricked. A man who has some heat in himself prefers to remain outside, where he will neither prick other people nor get pricked himself."

Scrolling through this list of logical paradoxes brings one in particular to mind. It's attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. And he said, “The only thing that I know, is that I know nothing.”

Taken literally, it would seem like a lie. Or a paradox. But it points to a deeper truth. We learn something new every day. We cannot possibly know everything. And challenging our thinking by seeking answers is an invaluable way to give our brains a good workout. Albeit sometimes a rather mind-bending one.