Quotes About Debate

One reason why false and offensive speech is permitted in most liberal democracies is precisely because the best answer to bad speech is good speech, rather than censorship.

However stupid a fool's words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man.

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....

Improving upon nature is the very essence of plant breeding, and so it goes to the heart of one of the central debates of the human condition: the relationship between humanity and nature and the degree to which the human race has a right (or indeed a responsibility) to change plant life for its own ends.

This might be good, I thought as I studied the crowd. There were several definitely intelligen?t guys present, not strobe-lig?ht intellects but people who could make you uncomforta?ble in a debate if you got too much beyond what you absolutely had the facts on.

creating big, bold letters; he draws visible pleasure from the flourishes with which he embellishes especially the letters J and S. They want a big public Disputation,

His conduct still right with his argument wrong.

In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill, For even though vanquished he could argue still.

In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading.

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.

I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn.

Beat a man with the strength of your argument, not with the strength of your arm.

As part of Camus' refusal to debate his political enemies publicly after their vitriolic responses to the publication of 'The Rebel'] At this point, the least sentence I might say will be used in a way that disgusts me in advance. ... It would be impossible for me in that case to continue expressing myself with academic politeness. I am mistaken for a deliberately polite man whom one may insult in all safety.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent doctor and saint, and heard great argument about it and about: but evermore came out by the same door as in I went.

Name-calling, insult, ridicule, guilt by association, caricature, innuendo, accusation, denunciation, negative ads, and deceptive and manipulative videos have replaced deliberation and debate. Neither side talks to the other side, only about them; and there is no pretence of democratic engagement, let alone a serious effort at persuasion.

Appreciation for history is scarce today, public debate is only rarely lit by foundational principles, and there is a further reason why the needed discussion fails to get off the ground—especially in the speech code, cancel culture of many American and European universities. Debate is often ended by prejudice and a fashionable consensus that chokes it off from the start.

We are not children; we might exchange empty theories until we're out of breath and merely end up adhering all the more stubbornly to our respective views

Liberty is a central concept in political philosophy and is often considered a fundamental value in democratic societies. However, the meaning of liberty and the extent to which it should be upheld has been a topic of debate throughout history.

There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments.

Politics you should banish absolutely—if people are not of one mind about them they are sure to quarrel over them; if they are of one mind no subject can be drearier.

Animalism," forsooth!—a more unfair word don't exist. When we animals never drink except just enough to satisfy thirst, never eat except when wo have genuine appetites, never indulge in any sort of debauch, and never strain excess till we sink into the slough of satiety, shall "animalism" be a word to designate all that men and women dare to do? "Animalism!" you ought to blush for such a libel on our innocent and reasonable lives when you regard your own

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable. William Penn