Controversy Quotes

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  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

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• No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.

  Lyman Beecher

  Science, Controversial Topics, Achievement

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 162, 1895.

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• Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.

  Benjamin Rush

  Fear, Errors

  34 Copy quote

• Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.

  Tupac Shakur

  Anger, Action, Conversation

  96 Copy quote

• Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.

  Thomas J. Watson

  Life, Motivational, Fear

  71 Copy quote

• Embrace controversy. It gives you a platform. It is a teacher, a clarifier, and your friend, especially if you are trying to make change.

  Gloria Feldt

  Teacher, Giving, Trying

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• When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.

  William Hazlitt

  Political, Internet, Free Speech

  The Atlas 31 January, (1830) 'The Spirit of Controversy'

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• People like controversy because that's what sells.

  Miley Cyrus

  People, Rock N Roll, Sells

  "The Real Miley Cyrus". Interview with Amy Larocca, www.harpersbazaar.com. January 6, 2010.

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• Controversy for the sake of controversy is sin. Controversy for the sake of truth is a divine command.

  Walter Martin

  Truth, Sake, Sin

  Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Van Gorden Kurt (2008). “The Kingdom of the Occult”, p.677, Harper Collins

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• In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Buddhist, Truth, Life Changing

  64 Copy quote

• The angriest person in a controversy is the one most liable to be in the wrong.

  John Tillotson

  Anger, Liable, Persons

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• It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.

  Julian Assange

  Powerful, Taken, Believe

  "Julian Assange: The man who played with fire". "Background Briefing" with Wendy Carlisle, www.abc.net.au. February 6, 2011.

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• The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Brother, Men, Challenges

  Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

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• Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.

  Tryon Edwards

  Engagement, Definitions, Firsts

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.246, Ravenio Books

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• The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

  Bertrand Russell

  Anger, Math, Religion

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.67, Routledge

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• The dust of controversy is merely the falsehood flying off.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Dust, Flying, Falsehood

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• Controversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way - and the fools know it.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Wise, Men, Way

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table”, p.114, Reprint Services Corporation

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• Intellectual controversies tend to be like dog fights without the teeth, in which the barking not the biting does the damage.

  Luis Fernando Verissimo

  Dog, Fighting, Intellectual

  Luís Fernando Veríssimo (2004). “Borges and the eternal orang-utans”, Vintage

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• It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.

  Samuel Butler

  Anger, Gains, Debate

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4366, Delphi Classics

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• A civilization in which there is not a continuous controversy about important issues is on the way to totalitarianism and death

  Robert M. Hutchins

  Civilization, Issues, Important

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• There will be no end to angling controversies for there is no one best way for everyone to fish.

  Lee Wulff

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  Lee Wulff (1952). “New handbook of freshwater fishing”

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• Sometimes its controversy, but we all have our choices that we make.

  Solomon Burke

  Choices, Sometimes, Our Choices

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• Why is there such controversy about drug testing? I know plenty of guys who'd be willing to test any drug they can come up with.

  George Carlin

  Funny, Guy, Drug

  "Brain Droppings".

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• The precipitancy of disputation, and the stir and noise of passions that usually attend it, must needs be prejudicial to verity.

  Joseph Glanvill

  Passion, Needs, Noise

  Joseph Glanvill (1665). “Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; In an Essay of The Vanity of Dogmatizing, and Confident Opinon. With a Reply to the Exceptions of the Learned Thomas Albius”, p.122

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• There is no learned man but will confess be hath much profited by reading controversies,--his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds firmly established. If then it be profitable for him to read, why should it not at least be tolerable and free for his adversary to write? In logic they teach that contraries laid together, more evidently appear; it follows then, that all controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true; which must needs conduce much to the general confirmation of an implicit truth.

  John Milton

  Reading, Writing, Men

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