(False) Things People Say (Was: "Never Say Never")

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If people know they are knowingly something very stupid when they say, "Never say never", why do they say it?

The same holds for:

"Joan Rivers is not 45 years old; she is 73 years old."

Logically, if she has lived 73 years, she has, by default, ALSO lived 45 years old.

Metalinguistic negation is a no-no.

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Consider:

"It is not hot; it is warm."

This makes perfect sense.

But the American expression:

"It is not warm; it is HOT!"

does not. It is FALSE. People yet say it.

The maxim goes:

"Say the truth!"

Yet people, illogically, say things which are false -- at least in regions of the world -- Cfr. "My lips are sealed", "I don't like you; I LOVE you!", and so on.

A Griceian has to give deaf ears to such absurdities, which goes etymologically hand in hand with what ab-surd means: deaf.