Question

Though you haven't read it, could you please tell me if there are examples of paradox (also called oxymoron) in the following sentences? I can’t find them.


1) "And beauty is a form of genius... is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.

2) "You smile? Ah! when you have lost it you won't smile... People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible...

Answer 1

I don't see paradox in the first one of those:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paradox

Beauty: "It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty." <b>What??</b>

Beauty: "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible..." <b> This can be considered a paradox if you are going with definition #4 in the definition linked above.</b>