Debate Quotes

• A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Life, Faith, Believe

  Thomas Carlyle (1840). “Works”, p.161

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• Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

  Jesse Jackson

  Political, Soul, Democracy

  "The Question Is Moot!". Interview With Steve Stearns, www.sonicsrising.com. October 12, 2007.

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• Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Feminine, Conversation, Masculine

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1872). “Concord Days”, p.77

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• I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Margaret Thatcher, Iain Dale (1997). “As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations”, Robson Book Ltd

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• Debate and divergence of views can only enrich our history and culture.

  Ibrahim Babangida

  Views, Culture, Divergence

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• Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Government, President, Anvils

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• I will only debate with my equals. All others I teach.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Teach

  "Critical lessons in slavery and the slavetrade".

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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, Disputes

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

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• The leader must aim high, see big, judge widely, thus setting himself apart form the ordinary people who debate in narrow confines.

  Charles de Gaulle

  Judging, People, Leader

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• There's always merit to having a debate.

  Ward Churchill

  Merit

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• In debate, one randomly was assigned to one side or the other. This had at least one virtue - it made one see that there was more than one side to these complex issues.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Issues, Sides, Virtue

  Biographical, www.nobelprize.org. 2001.

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• Debate is healthy and no one in this chamber - starting with me - has a monopoly on being right.

  Ted Kulongoski

  Starting Over, Healthy, Monopoly

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• The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

  Christopher Lasch

  Encouragement, Jobs, Information

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• After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Law, Land

  "CNN Student News" with Carl Azuz, edition.cnn.com. March 24, 2010.

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• Every candidate goes into every debate hoping that they can own a particular moment.

  Peter Jennings

  Moments, Particular, Candidates

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• The dinner table is a lively debate, and everybody weighs in in a different way. I like that, though.

  Vanessa Kerry

  Different, Tables, Dinner

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• This country is about, in my judgment, aggressive, open debate. There is an old saying: When everyone is thinking the same thing, no one is thinking very much.

  Byron Dorgan

  Country, Thinking, Judgment

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• That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting.

  Studs Terkel

  Missing You, Argument, Accepting

  Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Interview, www.pbs.org. December 19, 2003.

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• The federal government seeks to control and regulate the Internet, but the last thing this Congress should be doing is trying to stifle public debate online.

  Dennis Hastert

  Government, Aggravation, Trying

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• It is, I think, good evidence of life after death

  Donald Soper, Baron Soper

  Thinking, Life After Death, Evidence

  Radio interview, in Listener 17 Aug. 1978

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• Do not debate! is one of my inventions.

  Deng Xiaoping

  Invention

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• In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.

  John Stuart Mill

  Intellectual, Sides, Deny

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• What we have to do... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.

  Hillary Clinton

  Hymns, Differences, Diversity

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• I had hoped that the current presidential campaign debates might educate the public as to what is really involved in the ongoing controversy over campaign financing.

  James L. Buckley

  Afterlife, Presidential, Campaigns

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• I emphasize teachers because they are largely left out of the debate. None of the bombastic reports that come from Washington and think tanks telling us what needs to be 'fixed' - I hate such a mechanistic word, as if our schools were automobile engines - ever asks the opinions of teachers.

  Jonathan Kozol

  Education, Teacher, Hate

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