Quotes About Debate

If you believe in democracy, the overreach of leaders is a good reminder that vigorous public debate and time-consuming due process are not only more fair and more just, but that over the long term they usually produce better government, too.

It may be fine for an artist to be indifferent to the reaction of the viewer to a work of art. A vigorous debate on issues is also beneficial. But the dark vision of a world without truth cannot be our future.

Reggae is vile.

The problem for the Left, however, is that the moment it stops painting the Right as vile, it has to argue the issues.

Whether I'm reading a national publication or one of my local Chicago newspapers, I don't need to turn too many pages before I stumble upon another scandal. Not only do ethics violations deteriorate the public trust, but they also disrupt and undermine legitimate debate and policy.

Being offended by freedom of speech should never be regarded as a justification for violence.

As long as anger, paranoia and misinformation drive our political debate, there are unhinged souls among us who will feel justified in turning to violent remedies for imagined threats.

Whether solid rockets are more or less likely to fail than liquid-fuel rockets is debatable. More serious, though, is that when they do fail, it's usually violent and spectacular.

It's always fascinating - and sometimes a little disquieting - when two first-rate critics violently disagree.

Jackson, however, persevered. He joined the Franklin Debating Society, an institution that had been in existence over fifty years, and had enrolled in its membership some of the ablest men in Virginia.

As Virginia's lieutenant governor, I genuinely believe that Democrats and Republicans should be able to agree that reducing unintended pregnancies, decreasing abortion rates and improving the health of mothers and infants are important public health goals that should be carefully considered and debated.

In debate, one randomly was assigned to one side or the other. This had at least one virtue - it made one see that there was more than one side to these complex issues.

To argue about justice is unavoidably to argue about virtues, about substantive moral and even spiritual questions.

If people who cherish freedom, who know the importance of mutual respect and are aware of the imperative necessity to establish a constructive and critical debate, if these people are not ready to speak out, to be more committed and visible, then we can expect sad, painful tomorrows. The choice is ours.

even arguing with you is better than not having you around to argue with." Rafe looked over at Sebastian. "Does he always talk this much?" "Afraid so, but every now and then he does say something worth listening to.

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

The prime purpose of eloquence is to keep other people from talking.

Once when he [Demonax, a supposed Cynic sage] came upon two uncouth philosophers inquiring and wrangling with one another--one of them putting absurd questions, the other answering perfectly irrelevantly--he said "Don't you think, my friends, that one of these guys is milking a he-goat and the other putting a sieve underneath it?

He once saw two philosophers engaged in a very unedifying game of cross questions and crooked answers. 'Gentlemen,' said he, 'here is one man milking a billy-goat, and another catching the proceeds in a sieve.

Doctrines which can stand the trial of logic and reason can do without persecuting skeptics.

La gente puede estar en desacuerdo sobre la cuestión de si todos deberían estudiar economía en serio. Pero una cosa es segura. Un hombre que habla o escribe públicamente sobre la oposición entre el capitalismo y el socialismo sin haberse familiarizado completamente con todo lo que la economía tiene que decir sobre estos temas es un charlatán irresponsable.

A new word is like a fresh seed sewn on the ground of the discussion.

Must you argue everything ? Yeah. I'm a lawyer.

What Mr. Albee most desires is for the Model UN, the entire group of them, all eleven, even the scoundrel Quinn, to be there waiting, when he gets home each dreary night, and there again when he awakes in the morning, all of them politely debating one another with their resplendent voices, their hearts—which have not yet been broken by anything more serious than an unrequited crush or an unfair grade—quietly aglow with everything.