Quotes About Debate

Despite Sumner's vigorous opposition, the Senate, after an all-night debate, adopted a resolution introduced by Senator Oliver P. Morton of Indiana authorizing the commission, and the House followed suit.51

Bush saw issues in terms of black and white. There were no subtleties and no shades of gray. The war in Iraq was a biblical struggle of good versus evil—something from the pages of the Book of Revelation. His decision to bring democracy to Iraq was equally arbitrary and unilateral. Bush's religious fundamentalism often obscured reality. And he expected his cabinet to fall into line, not debate possible alternatives.

Confidence and superiority: It's the usual fundamentalist stuff: I've got the truth, and you haven't.

Politics is a science. You can demonstrate that you are right and that others are wrong.

Much blood has been spilled over words, and a great deal of it over the word 'God.' (125)

One thing you can say about nuclear power: the people who believe it is the silver bullet for America's energy problems never give up.

Bill Gates is a relative newcomer to the fight against global warming, but he's already shifting the debate over climate change.

The First Amendment says nothing about a right not to be offended. The risk of finding someone else's speech offensive is the price each of us pays for our own free speech. Free people don't run to court, or to the principal, when they encounter a message they don't like. They answer it with one of their own.

YOM KIPPUR. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round. But there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises. I

Yom Kippur. The day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast would mean a surer, swifter death. We fasted here the whole year round. The whole year was Yom Kippur.

The whole sphere of air that surrounds us, Alma, is alive with invisible attractions — electric, magnetic, fiery and thoughtful. There is a universal sympathy all around us… When we cease all argument and debate — both internal and external — our true questions can be heard and answered…That is the gathering of magic.

What's more, I believe in argument and I even love it. Argument is our most steadfast pathway toward truth, for it is the only proven arbalest against superstitious thinking, or lackadaisical axioms.

Good morning, Mr. Herbert!" I would say. "The point is debatable," he might respond. Or, on another day: "Good morning, Mr. Herbert!" "I will half allow it." Or: "Good morning, Mr. Herbert!" "I fail to see your argument." Or: "Good morning, Mr. Herbert!" "I find myself unequal to the occasion." Or, my favorite ever: "Good morning, Mr. Herbert!" "Oh, you're a satirist now, are you?

insisted, "until the point is inarguable.

The concept of Manifest Destiny, with its assertion of racial superiority sustained by military power, has defined U.S. identity for 150 years. Only the Vietnam War brought a serious challenge to that concept of almightiness. Bitter debate, moral anguish, images of My Lai and the prospect of military defeat for the first time in U.S. history all suggested that the long-standing marriage of virtue and violence might soon be on the rocks.

an obsession with self-definition can become a trap if that is all we think about, all we debate. If liberation terminology becomes an end in itself and our only end, it ceases to be a tool of liberation. Terms can be useful, even vital tools, but the house of La Raza that is waiting to be built needs many kinds.

Arguing with paladins is like arguing with wind and stone.

The less a person knows, the more certain he is that he is right, and ... no weapons yet invented are of any use in a struggle with stupidity.

Nothing like an arcane literary debate with your tyrannical master while you pass the time leading to your execution.

NICHOLAS GALING DRESSED FOR THE HISTORIANS' debate with all of his usual care. He wore green, for spring, with a waistcoat embroidered with jonquils. In deference to the gravity of the occasion, the green was dark, and he wore no lace.

We should not be surprised that we find meaningless noises in the foundation of many old philosophies, and that from them arise most of the old philosophical fights and arguments.

A clash of doctrines is not a disaster--it is an opportunity.

Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.

Debating an ignorant tires me.