Contrarian

Christopher [Hitchens] is bored by the epithet contrarian, which has been trailing him around for a quarter of a century. What he is, in any case, is an autocontrarian: he seeks not just the most difficult position, but the most difficult position for Christopher Hitchens.

[Søren] Kierkegaard had no university career, and [Friedrich] Nietzsche was a professor of Greek and Roman philology who had to retire because of ill health. Both were individualists, and both were contrarians by nature, dedicated to making people uncomfortable.

Hello, he lied / Like velvet, this magician's sleight of tongue and hand / Hello, he lied / Beware, belie his smile / As warm and calculated as heroin / Beware the contrarian

[T]o succeed as a contrarian, you have to be able to time trades in exactly the opposite direction of the majority. This means you have to move in when everyone else is fearful, and step back when everyone else is euphoric. This advice is easier to give than to follow, so contrarians are not just good at timing. They also are highly disciplined and able to set and follow rules for themselves that fly in the face of what the majority thinks.

The second part [of the book] explores the normative forms of adolescent resistance and contrarian behavior that vex parents and teachers alike. This discussion is within the context of chapters that look at the ways in which parenting and teaching for moral development can positively make use of these normative challenges.

I began with the problem that I did not have enough confidence in what I had to say. Then I discovered that there could never be a single "I" who could speak for me, I could only communicate an aspect of myself: sometimes more friendly, sometimes more contrarian.

Yet at the same time, 401(k) traders became more contrarian in their response to falling markets during the crisis. Therefore, the increased sensitivity to market volatility was offset, in part, by a tendency to 'buy on the dips' in response to falling markets.