The phrase “Broadway rock musical” is an oxymoron. Broadway doesn’t have the nerve to let the really hard stuff in the house. —Mark Coleman, Rolling Stone, 26 Dec. 1996/ 9 Jan. 1997

Taken to its logical conclusion, this emphasis on the fragmentation of the body politic makes postmodern feminism an oxymoron: feminism and virtually all our laws against sex discrimination reflect the presumption that women do in fact constitute a political category. —Wendy Kaminer, Atlantic, October 1993

He calls himself a “bleeding-heart conservative,” and that oxymoron sums up the unique [Jack F.] Kemp role in the Bush Administration: the apostle of free enterprise who is the ambassador to the poor. —William Safire ,New York Times Magazine, 25 Mar. 1990

As the war went on, “precision bombing” became a comical oxymoron relished by bomber crews with a sense of black humor. —Paul Fussell, Wartime, 1989

The phrase “cruel kindness” is an oxymoron.