a jumble of paradoxes and contradictions

[George] Tyrrell, however—even leaving aside ideological differences—did not always prove an easy colleague or companion. He was a jumble of paradoxes and contradictions. At once self-doubting and self-righteous, continually examining his own motives and those of others, introspective and intense, sad in the peculiarly self-absorbed way a Celt is sad, he was wistful around animals and often intolerant of human beings. Yet he could be, even so, warm and funny and outgoing, not just affectionate and indulgent, but capable of identifying himself with others and winning their abiding loyalty to a remarkable degree. But even this apparently endearing quality upset his tender conscience, made him feel guilty of what he called himself his "duplicity," his "chameleon-like" temperament, because such accommodation seemed to fly in the face of his uncompromising and oft-proclaimed dedication to abstract truth.

—Marvin R. O'Connell, Critics on Trial (1994)