Quotes About Debate

To read the report of a discussion in which arguments for and against are presented, in which a subject has been covered from different points of view, with new ideas advanced - this is far more instructive than to read a brief account of the resolution passed on the matter.

If you take a strong stance and have a clear opinion or statement on any subject online, you're going to polarize people. And without that polarity, there's no discussion. Discussion is what I want, which means that I'm fine with the consequences.

The Democrats generally recoil from the subject of entitlements.

All of my books deal in a very rough, rude fashion with subjects about which there are great conflicts of opinion.

As an engineer, I learned that a long time ago: you don't want to get into a rational discussion about irrational subjects.

I think issues and substance, policy and vision and record should be the meat of politics.

When considering real-world issues, particularly those that touch on science and technology, it is harder to speak in platitudes or rely purely on emotion or fear. Substance, or its lack, becomes harder to mimic or mask, which is why I wish we had a true televised presidential debate on these subjects.

If you're going to have a difference of opinion, I think the difference of opinion should be on a matter of substance.

Republicans and Democrats have used accounting gimmicks and competing government analyses to deceive the public into believing that 2 + 2 = 6. If our leaders cannot agree on the numbers, if 'facts' are fictional, how can they possibly have a substantive debate on solutions?

My wife is a Christian and is extraordinary patient, logical, and philosophical. For years, I would challenge and condemn her beliefs, battering the structure of her conclusions with every argument, analogy, and evidence I could bring to bear. I am a very argumentative man, and I am as fell and subtle as a serpent in debate.

Today most of the debate on the cutting edge in macroeconomics would not call itself "Keynesian" or "monetarist" or any other label relating to a school of thought. The data are considered the ruling principle, and it is considered suspect to have too strong a loyalty to any particular model about the underlying structure of the economy.

I think it is equally tiresome and useless to argue about whether blogs are journalism, for journalism is not limited by the tool or medium or person used in the act

It is impossible to win an argument with an ignorant man

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument

It will do no good to argue if you're in the wrong, & if you're right--you don't need to.

Sometimes when you're arguing with a fool, he's doing the same thing.

If you must argue, the best way to win is to start by being right.

Arguing about religion is much easier than practicing it.

The more arguments you win, the less friends you will have

The more arguments you win, the fewer friends you'll have.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument is an exchange of ignorance.

Use soft words and hard arguments.

Often sound advice turns out to be totally wrong. Sometimes things turn out in such a way that only a fool would predict. Which is why fools, too, have their place in analysis and debate.

Dean and Leach represented Fairmount in an hourlong debate against Marion High that was broadcast on local radio. They argued the affirmative side of the proposition, "The election of United States presidents should be by the direct vote of the people.