Quotes About Debate

I don't have a problem with enhanced border security, perhaps to include fencing. I think the mistake is believing that border security is as simple as just putting up a wall from sea to shining sea.

Arun Jaitely challenged me to a debate on national affairs, but when I said he should include Amritsar and Punjab in the discussion, he shied away. He didn't agree because he doesn't know much about Punjab.

Far too many scientists, including my good friend Richard Dawkins, present science as the truth and present it as factually correct. And actually, of course, that clearly isn't true.

Censorship is certainly not the answer to controversial material and is inconsistent with our most basic constitutional values.

Every debate in Washington is about how much to increase spending - a little or a lot.

Debt ceiling is something that, you know, any time the president asks for the authority to increase the debt ceiling, the debt burden on our children and grandchildren, I think that requires a pretty serious discussion, robust debate.

The Trudeau government increasingly avoids debate on important national issues by demonizing people who disagree with them.

Evolution is baseless and quite incredible.

I do work a lot on arguing that things which people assume are always wrong are not necessarily so and, indeed, can often be right.

Disputes are not to be decided by the weight of authority, but by the force of reason.

Let's be clear. The debate over health care in this country is not a debate about medical treatment or the best way to prevent disease. It is a debate about economics and class politics. Either we maintain a profit-driven health care system whose main function is to enrich certain individuals and institutions, or we develop a nonprofit, cost-effective system that provides quality health care for all people as a right of citizenship.

Reasonable people can disagree... and it makes them no less American.

There are periods in our country's history when Americans re-examine the essence of our social contract. They have occurred half a dozen times. These periods invariably include debate over the meaning of our "civil bible" -- the Constitution -- because we have relied so much on that document to articulate how we see ourselves as a people and how we see ourselves as a nation.

Idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion. Religion is defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power. And atheism is… precisely not that. Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position

I've sat behind a microphone and listened for decades as Americans learned to stop talking with each other and start shouting instead. No discussions, just 'socialist' or 'fascist' or 'feminazi' or 'bigot' or whatever. So here's what I want to say, and I think it's the one thing no one ever says any more in our public life: I think you're wrong, but you may be right .

It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.

It's hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.

That's what makes the creationist viewpoint not just staggeringly wrong, but sadly impoverished. In twisting around the Second Law of Thermodynamics, they take a powerful tool for understanding the world and try to make it into a barrier to understanding instead.

Bill O'Reilly

If you don't agree with me, I have two words for you: shut the fuck up.

If you can't win by reason, go for volume.

The goal of any worthwhile and effective journal of opinion analysis in navigating what is an increasingly tribal and divisive period in American history should be to promote real debate. That does not mean retreating to our corners and pretending that, if we ignore the perspectives we don't like, they will magically go away.

The 'Britishness' debate too often descends into worthy flannel about common values and mutual respect. To give a hard edge to what it means to be British, you have to say what is un-British, and, if necessary, legislate to stop anyone committing un-British acts. Forced marriage falls squarely into this category.

Dick Durbin's a worthy opponent on any debate. He's very intelligent, quick. Knows his facts and puts them forward well.