Controversy Quotes - Page 18

• D'Alembert was always surrounded by controversy. ... he was the lightning rod which drew sparks from all the foes of the philosophes. ... Unfortunately he carried this... pugnacity into his scientific research and once he had entered a controversy, he argued his cause with vigour and stubbornness. He closed his mind to the possibility that he might be wrong.

  Jean le Rond d'Alembert

  Mind, Lightning, Research

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• Marx set out to resolve the contradictions and to correct the errors in classical political economy. In this he thought he had succeeded very well. Judging by the sound and the fury of the controversy surrounding his interpretations, he either succeeded too well or deluded himself to the success of his enterprise.

  David Harvey

  Errors, Judging, Political

  "The Limits To Capital". Book by David Harvey, 1982.

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• I wouldn't be worth my salt if I weren't attracting some controversy and criticism. Everyone in the world who has done something in life has attracted criticism.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Criticism, Done, World

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• The same applies to the music and film industries. Until the heads of the labels start wanting to make money rather than creating controversy, tension, and excuses about why piracy is making the job so hard that no one could do it but them - and oh by the way, they need a raise to really focus in on the fight - the music industry is going to have a very tough time of it.

  Mark Cuban

  Jobs, Fighting, Creating

  "Online Extra: Mark Cuban: Watch Out for 'Ultrabroadband'". Interview with Peter Elstrom, www.bloomberg.com. August 25, 2003.

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• If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. [...] The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

  Bertrand Russell

  Thinking, Differences, Finding Yourself

  "Unpopular Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, p. 116, 1950.

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• How about this John Kerry controversy? So he's out there in California, tells some kind of joke and it backfires. He's saying he botched the joke. ... This guy can lose elections he's not even in.

  David Letterman

  California, Guy, Election

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• Have you folks been following the controversy with John Kerry and his service in Vietnam and the Swift Boat campaign? It all took place in Vietnam and now it just won't go away. I was thinking about this - if John Kerry had just ducked the war like everybody else he wouldn't have this trouble.

  David Letterman

  War, Thinking, Going Away

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• Attacks on alternative religious groups are attempts to psychologize - to medicalize - a controversy that, on deeper examination, is clearly a controversy over ideology and lifestyle.

  James R. Lewis

  Religious, Groups, Alternatives

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• The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticism of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from it's indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power and pre-eminence.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Plato, Order

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.43, Cambridge University Press

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• Religious doctrines would do well to withdraw their pretension to be dealing with matters of fact. That pretension is not only the source of the conflicts of religion with science and the vain and bitter controversies of sects; it is also the cause of the impurity and incoherence of religion in the soul.

  George Santayana

  Religious, Soul, Atheism

  George Santayana (1934). “Little essays drawn from the writings of George Santayana”, p.51, Рипол Классик

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• ... the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

  John F. Kennedy

  Atheism, Citizens, Crime

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• I am disappointed by this controversy surrounding A Million Little Pieces because I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within and also the authenticity of the work.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Book, Fall, Littles

  "CNN Larry King Live". Interview With James Frey, transcripts.cnn.com. January 11, 2006.

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• Possible controversy for the Obama campaign. Republicans are now accusing Barack Obama's campaign of voter fraud, because some of the people they've registered sound like they have fake names. Apparently, the fakest-sounding name is Barack Obama.

  Conan O'Brien

  Names, People, Fake

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