Quotes About Controversy

The thing that strikes me more and more, is the extraordinary viciousness and dishonesty of political controversy in our time. I don't mean merely that controversies are acrimonious. They ought to be that when they are on serious subjects. I mean that almost nobody seems to feel that an opponent deserves a fair hearing or that the objective truth matters as long as you can score a neat debating point.

Si la libertad significa algo, será, sobre todo, el derecho a decirle a la gente aquello que no quiere oír.»

It is as though in the middle of a chess tournament one competitor should suddenly begin screaming that the other is guilty of arson or bigamy. The point that is really at issue remains untouched. Libel settles nothing...

political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.

It appeared that even in Barcelona there were hardly any bullfights nowadays; for some reason all the best matadors were Fascists.

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.

Falls Freiheit überhaupt irgendetwas bedeutet, dann bedeutet sie das Recht darauf, den Leuten das zu sagen, was sie nicht hören wollen.

Freedom of speech and of the Press are usually attacked by arguments which are not worth bothering about.

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him)

It is a horrible thing to have to enter into the details of inter-party polemics; it is like diving into a cesspool.

The controversy over freedom of speech and of the press is at bottom a controversy of the desirability, or otherwise, of telling lies. What is really at issue is the right to report contemporary events truthfully, or as truthfully as is consistent with the ignorance, bias and self-deception from which every observer necessarily suffers.

All the best matadors were Fascists.

Si la libertad significa algo, es el derecho a decirles a los demás lo que no quieren oír.

Sloboda je pravo da se ljudima govori ono što oni ne žele ?uti.

Tal como acontece com a religião cristã, a pior propaganda para o socialismo são seus adeptos.

It is always so with titled people, they are either adored or hated.

or said some racist thing out loud at church...

The Presdt is an idiot.

I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas. --George W. Bush, on the former South African president, who is still very much alive, Washington, D.C., Sept. 20, 2007

I snorted coke in college, but I didn't inhale!

I made international news by giving Misty [May-Treanor] a playful slap on the back--a little north of the traditional target.

I'll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are. [after the Navy warship USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in a commercial air corridor, killing 290 civilians]

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society.

If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian. Samuel Clemens Mark Twain, American author and humorist