Contention Quotes - Page 8

• My contention is that if you trace it back, it was the people of the East who brought them out of the Dark Ages, who brought about the period, or ushered in or initiated the atmosphere that brought into Europe the period known as the Renaissance.

  Malcolm X

  Dark, Europe, People

  Interview with Robert Penn Warren, whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu. June 2, 1964.

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• Well, my contention is that the political system of this country is so designed criminally to prevent this, that if the black man even started in that direction, which is a mature step and it's the only way to really solve this problem and to prove that he is the intellectual equal of others, why, the racists and the segregationists would fight that harder than they're fighting the present efforts to integrate.

  Malcolm X

  Country, Fighting, Men

  Interview with Robert Penn Warren, whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu. June 2, 1964.

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• Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be against one another? O happy days of persecution, which drove us together in love, whom the sunshine of liberty and prosperity crumbles into dust by our contentions!

  Richard Baxter

  Sunshine, Dust, Liberty

  Richard Baxter (1817). “The saints' everlasting rest; The divine life; and Dying thoughts; also, A call to the unconverted; and Now or never. Carefully revised”, p.19

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• Believe it or not, when I get in contention I can still hit the shots.

  Padraig Harrington

  Believe, Shots, Stills

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• People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

  Will Rogers

  Business, People, Mind

  Will Rogers, Bryan B. Sterling, Frances N. Sterling (1993). “Will Rogers' World: America's Foremost Political Humorist Comments on the Twenties and Thirties--and Eighties and Nineties”, p.45, Rowman & Littlefield

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• We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Voice, Mountain, Sparks

  "Except the Lord Build the House …" by Gordon B. Hinckley, www.lds.org. June 1971.

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• The true antidote to greed is contentment. If you have a strong sense of contentment, it doesn't matter whether you obtain the object of your desire or not. Either way, you are still content.

  Bill Vaughan

  Strong, Greed, Contentment

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• A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Humor, Talking, Fool

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• Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Commitment, Compromise, Meek

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• The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit.

  Carl Sagan

  Ideas, Merit, Different

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.12, Ballantine Books

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• One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it.

  Joseph Addison

  Wrath, Safety, Atheism

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• Give heed to the cause of the holy Roman Church, mother of all churches and teacher of the faith, whom you by the order of God, have consecrated by your blood. Against the Roman Church, you warned, lying teachers are rising, introducing ruinous sects, and drawing upon themselves speedy doom. Their tongues are fire, a restless evil, full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, contention in their hearts, and boast and lie against the truth.

  Pope Leo X

  Mother, Teacher, Lying

  "Exsurge Domine". Papal bull by Pope Leo X, 1520.

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• Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty. Toleration implies that somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle.

  George W Truett

  Differences, Atheism, Liberty

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• Over the first three rounds you're playing the course. In the final round, if you're in contention, you're playing the man.

  Jack Nicklaus

  Golf, Men, Finals

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• Life is a theatre of alarms and contentions.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Life, Theatre, Alarms

  Charles Horton Cooley (1992). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.250, Transaction Publishers

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• I've had a lot of majors where I didn't play well until the last round. Keep yourself in contention; that's the name of the game. I usually ended up shooting a good round and all of a sudden, somehow, I won.

  Jack Nicklaus

  Golf, Games, Play

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• It would seem that zeal is not an effect of love. For zeal is a beginning of contention.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Zeal, Effects, Seems

  Thomas Aquinas (2015). “Summa Theologica”, p.288, Xist Publishing

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• Friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of “Mormonism”; it is designed to revolutionize and civilize the world, and cause wars and contentions to cease and men to become friends and brothers.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Brother, War, Men

  "History of the Church". Book by Joseph Smith, Jr., July 23, 1843.

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• To be happy one must be (a) well fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion, (b) full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of one's fellow men, and (c) delicately and unceasingly amused according to one's taste. It is my contention that, if this definition be accepted, there is no country in the world wherein a man constituted as I am - a man of my peculiar weakness, vanities, appetites, and aversions - can be so happy as he can be in the United States.

  H. L. Mencken

  Country, Men, Vanity

  "On Being An American". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1922.

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• The Fundamentalist Christians have told me that I am a slave of Satan and should have my demons expelled with an exorcism. The Fundamentalist Materialists inform me that I am a liar, charlatan, fraud and scoundrel. Aside from this minor difference, the letters are astoundingly similar. Both groups share the same crusading zeal and the same lack of humor, charity and common human decency. These intolerable cults have served to confirm me in my agnosticism by presenting further evidence to support my contention that when dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Christian, Liars, Should Have

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• The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.

  Simone Weil

  Rely Upon, Rights, Tone

  Simone Weil (1977). “The Simone Weil Reader”

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• Even as we seek to be meek and to avoid contention, we must not compromise or dilute our commitment to the truths we understand. We must not surrender our positions or our values. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the covenants we have made inevitably cast us as combatants in the eternal contest between truth and error. there is no middle ground in that contest.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Jesus, Commitment, Errors

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• It's my contention that there is no sincere path a human being can take without breaking his or her heart...so it can be a lovely, merciful thing to think, 'Actually, there is no path I can take without having my heart broken, so why not get on with it and stop wanting these extra-special circumstances which stop me from doing something courageous?'

  David Whyte

  Heart, Thinking, Broken

  "The Questions that Have No Right to Go Away" By David Whyte, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 18, 2012.

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• I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me.

  Dave Barry

  Respect, Funny Inspirational, Party

  "Is Findlay’s water safe?". "The Courier" Interview, thecourier.com. February 15, 2016.

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• It is possible to rise to the lofty standard set by the Lord for priesthood holders in making decisions in quorums. It is possible when there is great faith and love and the absence of contention.

  Henry B. Eyring

  Standards Set, Decision, And Love

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