Debate Quotes - Page 17

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  My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminuation, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. It is reason and not passion which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

  Barbara Jordan

  Passion, Decision, Constitution

  Statement on the Articles of Impeachment, delivered 25 July 1974, House Judiciary Committee

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• Even within traditional universities there has always been debate about whether it wouldn't be better to focus on only one course at a time.

  Philip Greenspun

  Focus, University, Traditional

  Slashdot interview, tech.slashdot.org. April 27, 2000.

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• The 'Big Green Debate' has entered a very interesting stage. Once there was endless controversy; now there is near unanimity. Once there was universal political indifference; now the bandwagon is abrim with politicians in catch-up mode. Once the media were semi-detached: now they're really getting stuck in. And they need to be! Many people are confused and disempowered, and the role of the media in getting then informed and engaged is critical

  Jonathon Porritt

  Confused, Future, Media

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• The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them. And one can debate long and profitably on the rule of Nobody, which is what the political form known as bureau-cracy truly is….we have become very much accustomed by modern psychology and sociology, not to speak of modern bureaucracy, to explaining away the responsibility of the doer for his deed in terms of this or that kind of determinism.

  Hannah Arendt

  Responsibility, Men, Essence

  "The Origins of Totalitarianism". Book by Hannah Arendt, progressive.org. 1951.

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• You can always debate about what you should have done. The question is what are you going to do?

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Wisdom, Should Have, Done

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• We are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration!

  Hillary Clinton

  Administration, Disagree

  Hillary Clinton's speech at the annual Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey Day fund raising dinner in Connecticut, April 28, 2003.

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• Anyone who clings to the historically untrue-and thoroughly immoral-doctrine that, 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedom.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Thinking, Issues, Never Settle

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Starship Troopers”, p.27, Penguin

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• If there is an ‘overabundance’ of an idea in the absence of direct governmental action - which there well might be when compared with some ideal state of public debate - then action disfavoring that idea might ‘un-skew,’ rather than skew, public discourse.

  Elena Kagan

  Ideas, Might, Action

  "Kagan Argued for Government 'Redistribution of Speech'" by Matt Cover, www.cnsnews.com. May 11, 2010.

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• I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter.

  Michele Bachmann

  Mother, Daughter, Stupid

  "Matt Lauer Urges Bachmann to Bash Perry; NBC Debate Coverage Promotes GOP Infighting". Transcript of the Interview with Matt Lauer, www.mrc.org. September 13, 2011.

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• Tolerance once meant that we could use our reason to discern good and evil in open debate. Today tolerance has been used to call good evil and evil good.

  Charles Colson

  Christian, Evil, Tolerance

  Charles Colson (2012). “The Good Life”, p.191, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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• Every family has a story that it tells itself, that it passes on to the children and grandchildren. The story grows over the years, mutates, some parts are sharpened, others dropped, and there is often debate about what really happened. But even with these different sides of the same story, there is still agreement that this is the family story. And in the absence of other narratives, it becomes the flagpole that the family hangs its identity from.

  A.M. Homes

  Family, Children, Agreement

  A.M. Homes (2012). “The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir”, p.93, Granta Books

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• Why does the left hate free speech? Because they don't know how to talk about the substantive merits when they are challenged. Having submerged themselves in disciplining each other by denouncing any heretics in their midst, they find themselves overwhelmed and outnumbered in America, where there is vibrant debate about all sorts of things they don't know how to begin to talk about. They resort to stomping their feet and shouting "shut up"... when they aren't prissily imploring everyone to be "civil."

  Ann Althouse

  Hate, Feet, America

  "Why does the left hate free speech?" by Ann Althouse, althouse.blogspot.ru. February 3, 2011.

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• The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right.

  George Orwell

  Party, Heart, Eye

  George Orwell, A.M. Heath (2003). “Animal Farm and 1984”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Like the vast majority of Americans, I've opposed same-sex marriage, but I've also opposed unjust discrimination against anyone, for racial or religious reasons, or for sexual preference. Americans are a tolerant, generous, and kind people. We all oppose bigotry and disparagement. But the debate over same-sex marriage is not a debate over tolerance. It is a debate about the purpose of the institution of marriage and it is a debate about activist judges who make up the law rather than interpret the law.

  Mitt Romney

  Religious, Sex, Gay

  "A Primary Factor". Interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez, www.nationalreview.com. December 14, 2006.

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• To dispute with a drunkard is to debate with an empty house.

  Publilius Syrus

  Beer, House, Empty

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• Among German historians, there's really not much debate about whether or not Hitler was a social Darwinist. He clearly was drawing on Darwinian ideas.

  Richard Weikart

  Ideas, Drawing, Religion

  "'Expelled' Correct on Darwin, Hitler Link, Says Christian Group" by Alexander J. Sheffrin, www.christianpost.com. May 1, 2008.

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• Pro-choice and pro-life activists live in different worlds, and the scope of their lives, as both adults and children, fortifies them in their belief that their own views on abortion are the more correct, the more moral, and more reasonable. When added to this is the fact that should 'the other side' win, one group of women will see the very real devaluation of their lives and life resources, it is not surprising that the abortion debate has generated so much heat and so little light.

  Kristin Luker

  Children, Real, Winning

  Kristin Luker (1985). “Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood”, p.215, Univ of California Press

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• Fantastically, Australia is still the lucky country. We have the flawed but necessary gift of democracy. Currently there is a debate about whether there is racism in Australia. There is racism in every country in the world. Relatively speaking, we are tolerant of one another. We have a large and giving land and, if you haven't seen its beauty, you haven't seen a beauty precious to the earth.

  Martin Flanagan

  Beauty, Country, Land

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• We have a natural constant craving for leadership. Democracy is always a fragile and imperfect achievement. Yet a distinct feeling of malaise in our political culture lingers. There is something missing from our public debates.

  Tim Soutphommasane

  Leadership, Achievement, Political

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• Global warming is such a politically charged issue that we are losing our perspective on the issue and more importantly losing an open forum from which to discuss the issue. If we lose the right or comfort level to openly discuss and debate this issue we will not be able to tackle it efficiently and economically.

  Topper Shutt

  Issues, Perspective, Comfort

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• We have a policy at Greenpeace that we no longer debate people who don't accept the scientific reality of anthropogenic climate change.

  Ben Stewart

  Reality, People, Climate

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• News at Work is a vivid, inside look at the collision of print journalism and electronic media. Based on close access to the leading news organizations in Buenos Aires, Boczkowski documents how contemporary journalism is caught in the grip of emulation; this spiral of imitation exacerbated further by global news media and their intensifying homogenization. The portrait of this transformation of the news is both fascinating and deeply worrying, and is guaranteed to provoke debate.

  Walter W. Powell

  Media, Organization, Worry

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

  Jeff Goodell

  Fighting, Climate, Bills

  Interview with Bill Gates, www.rollingstone.com. December 9, 2010.

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• But I think the American people expect more from us than cries of indignation and attack. The times are too grave, the challenge too urgent, and the stakes too high to permit the customary passions of political debate. We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: if we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.

  John F. Kennedy

  Passion, Past, Thinking

  Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, en.wikisource.org. July 15, 1960.

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• The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.

  Carl Sagan

  Honesty, Ideas, Democracy

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