Paradox

PEAR-uh-dox

A trope that claims the truth of a contradictory statement. The term comes from the Greek, para, meaning “opposite” or “contrary to”; and doxa, meaning “belief.” You see doxa in “orthodoxy,” which literally means “correct belief.” A paradox takes a pair of truths and mashes them together like positive and negative ions in a nuclear experiment. The opposites can be attractive, helping your audience understand complexity while holding their attention.

See oxymoron and Catch-22. 

Christians chop down trees to make houses to put trees in.  Jonathan Safran Foer

Lindsay Lohan: Beautiful, funny, screw-loose drunken nutcase.
Sarah Palin: Fit, savvy, tough, funny, vicious.
George Clooney: Handsome, suave, monotonal.
Mel Gibson: Handsome, funny, racist drunken nutcase.
Word Hero