Debate Quotes - Page 25

• I almost became a political journalist, having worked as a reporter at the time of Watergate. The proximity to those events motivated me, when I wound up doing philosophy, to try to use it to move the public debate.

  Michael Sandel

  Philosophy, Moving, Political

  "Michael Sandel: This much I know". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. April 27, 2013.

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• You and I have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other and separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the streets to avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way, lest they should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peaceable minds. Tranquility is the old man's milk.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Passion, Men, Political

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• The goal was 'every child a wanted child'; it should also have been 'every abortion a wanted abortion', but the two sides of the phony debate were never to meet.

  Germaine Greer

  Children, Two, Goal

  "The Whole Woman". Book by Germaine Greer, 1999.

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• The worst, most insidious effect of censorship is that, in the end, it can deaden the imagination of the people. Where there is no debate, it is hard to go on remembering, every day, that there is a suppressed side to every argument.

  Salman Rushdie

  Death, People, Imagination

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• What really worries me is that those who are in positions of power are not really affected by what we are writing. In the moral dialogue you want to start, you really want to involve the leaders. People ask me: "Why were you so bold as to publish A Man of the People? How did you think the Government was going to take it? You didn't know there was going to be a coup?" I said rather flippantly that nobody was going to read it anyway, so I wasn't likely to be fired from my official position. It's a distressing thought that we cannot engage our leaders in the kind of moral debate we need.

  Chinua Achebe

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors (1997). “Conversations with Chinua Achebe”, p.19, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Since Khomeini's death, the popular appeal of an Islamic state - and of fundamentalism - has surely dimmed. Thinkers still debate and warriors kill, but no country seems prepared to emulate Iran. Perhaps revolutions happen only under majestic leaders, and no one like Khomeini has since appeared.

  Ruhollah Khomeini

  Country, Islamic, Warrior

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• Which is ideology? Which not? You shall know them by their assertion of truth, their contempt for considered reflection, and their fear of debate.

  John Ralston Saul

  Reflection, Contempt, Ideology

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense”, p.170, Simon and Schuster

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• In the humanist ideal, the mainstream is where interesting debate, the generating of new ideas and creativity take place. In rational society this mainstream is considered uncontrollable and is therefore made marginal. The centre ground is occupied instead by structures and courtiers.

  John Ralston Saul

  Creativity, Ideas, Interesting

  "The Doubter's Companion". Book by John Ralston Saul, 1994.

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• Traditionally poetry is written in lines. But the prose poem is the kind of poem that isn't written in lines. It is lyrical prose that uses the tricks of poetry, such as dense imagery. This is a big topic of debate in poetry land. There's no perfect definition.

  Campbell McGrath

  Land, Perfect, Use

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• Together, these advocates create a pro-Israeli case so compelling that the idea and reality of Israel has worked itself deep into American culture, politics and foreign policy. Many American Jews refuse to accept it, but the real debate between Israel’s supporters and detractors in America is all but over.

  Aaron David Miller

  Real, Ideas, America

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• The Republican debate got pretty heated. They spent most of their time arguing over who God called first.

  Jay Leno

  Firsts, Arguing, Republican

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• The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification - framing the debate in terms which ignore the real issues.

  Michael Crichton

  Real, Issues, Syndromes

  "Mediasaurus: the Decline of Conventional Media". Speech at the National Press Club, Washington D.C., April 07, 1993.

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• A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister... For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.

  Clarence Thomas

  Courage, Truth, Justice

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• I despair of persuading people to drop the familiar and comforting tactic of dichotomy. Perhaps, instead, we might expand the framework of debates by seeking other dichotomies more appropriate than, or simply different from, the conventional divisions. All dichotomies are simplifications, but the rendition of a conflict along differing axes of several orthogonal dichotomies might provide an amplitude of proper intellectual space without forcing us to forgo our most comforting tool of thought.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Axes, Space, People

  "Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, p. 8, 1987.

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• Unfortunately, public debates do not have much room for subtlety. The audience wants a quick thrust at your opponent, not a slow and convoluted series of moves. Whenever Obama uses subtleties in discussing a complex issue, he gets creamed.

  Alan Lightman

  Moving, Issues, Rooms

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• In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, man's dispute with madness was dramatic debate in which he confronted the secret powers of the world; the experience of madness was clouded by images of the Fall and the Will of God, of the Beast and the Metamorphosis, and of all the marvelous secrets of Knowledge

  Michel Foucault

  Fall, Men, Secret

  Michel Foucault (2013). “Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason”, p.12, Vintage

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• There is a limitation on debate, which is unlike other bills, for 20 hours, but there is no limitation on amendments. In other words, Republicans if they wanted to, and I suspect they do, could offer literally thousands of amendments and keep Senate in session for weeks and months.

  Rick Santorum

  Bills, Months, Republican

  "Santorum's Health Care Stall Tactic: 'Offer Literally Thousands of Amendments' to Keep Senate in Session for Months". www.mediamatters.org. February 27, 2010.

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• I find Chinese debates about their political system domestically, but also about China's claims in the international system, to be among the most original and surprising and exciting of our time. The starting point is a system that none of us had anticipated, which I call Leninist capitalism, but also obviously because it is the most important emerging power. The question of China's relations with the United States in particular, and the rest of the world in general, is the question of war and peace in the 21st century.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  War, Political, Chinese

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• Enjoy most: the prospect of having an impact on the public debate. Irritating liberals is a close second.

  Ann Coulter

  Impact, Enjoy, Irritating

  Ann Coulter (2007). “If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans”, p.81, Crown Forum

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• The not-visibly-insane Democrats all claim they'll get rough with the terrorists, but they can't even face Brit Hume. In case you missed this profile in Democrat machismo, the Democratic presidential candidates are refusing to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News Channel because the hosts are "biased." But they'll face down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! At this, even Hillary Clinton was thinking, "Come on, guys - let's grow a pair."

  Ann Coulter

  Thinking, Guy, Presidential

  "No Wonder They're Afraid of Brit Hume" by Ann Coulter, townhall.com. May 3, 2007.

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• I have no doubt that if an actual ticking bomb situation were to arise, our law enforcement authorities would torture. The real debate is whether such torture should take place outside of our legal system or within it. The answer to this seems clear: If we are to have torture, it should be authorized by the law.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Real, Law, Doubt

  "Is There a Torturous Road to Justice?" by Alan Dershowitz, articles.latimes.com. November 8, 2001.

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• For the sake of democracy, vigorous, civilized debate must replace the law of silence that political correctness has imposed.

  Anthony Daniels

  Law, Silence, Political

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• Just in time for the renewal of the war debate in Congress, the University of Chicago Press has released The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. . . . It's a nifty volume, not only because it gives you a sense of what our most highly regarded military theorists are thinking but because sometimes what they're thinking is the last thing you'd expect. Especially interesting is a section called 'Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency Operations,' which tells us: 'Sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction' and 'Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is.'

  David L. Ulin

  Military, War, Marine

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• You know, when I was in college, there was a big debate: Do unions raise wages? Well, with regard to industrial unions, there were arguments back and forth -- international competition. It is now clear, I think, that whether or not you think unions raised wages 50 years ago, the absence of unions and their weakness that is inflicted by anti-union public policy depresses wages. The fact is that people who are not represented, in the service industries in particular, are the victims of policies which depress their wages.

  Barney Frank

  Depressing, College, Thinking

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• In the debate between those who believe in essentially unregulated markets and others who hold that reasonable regulation diminishes market excesses without inhibiting their basic function, the subprime situation unfortunately provides ammunition for the latter view.

  Barney Frank

  Believe, Views, Excess

  "(Sub)prime argument for regulation" by Barney Frank, www.ft.com. August 19, 2007.

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