Debate Quotes - Page 37

• Putting it in plain terms, the general public must be reduced to its traditional apathy and obedience, and driven from the arena of political debate and action, if democracy is to survive.

  Noam Chomsky

  Political, Democracy, Apathy

  Noam Chomsky (1989). “Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies”, p.3, Pluto Press

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• To achieve respectability, to be admitted to the debate, they must accept without question or inquiry the fundamental doctrine that the state is benevolent, governed by the loftiest intentions, adopting a defensive stance, not an actor in world affairs but only reacting to the crimes of others...If even the harshest of critics tacitly adopt these premises, then the ordinary person may ask, who am I to disagree?

  Noam Chomsky

  Ordinary, Doctrine, Inquiry

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• In the end, I'm convinced we will all benefit if suspicion is replaced by discussion, innuendo by dialogue; if the emphasis in our debate turns from a search for talismanic criteria and neat but simplistic answers to an honest - more intelligent - attempt at describing the role religion has in our public affairs, and the limits placed on that role.

  Mario Cuomo

  Intelligent, Answers, Benefits

  New York (State). Governor (1983- : Cuomo), Mario Matthew Cuomo (1989). “Public Papers of Governor Mario M. Cuomo, 1984”

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• Most of my work for the past 25 years has been devoted to organizing demonstrations, benefits and campaigns, many of which have had the effect of bringing a policy debate to public focus or moving a political agenda forward. It's become a cliché to say 'think globally and act locally,' but it works.

  Peter Yarrow

  Moving, Past, Thinking

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• We suffer from a terrible poverty of civic discourse in this country. Surely, it is outside of America's best traditions to send the signal that patriotism is mindless emotion, that leadership is avoiding saying tough things, that citizenship is toeing the line. But such is the result of a lack of openness, our nervousness with debate.

  Geneva Overholser

  Country, America, Suffering

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• "Teachers"... treat students neither coercively nor instrumentally but as joint seekers of truth and of mutual actualization. They help students define moral values not by imposing their own moralities on them but by positing situations that pose hard moral choices and then encouraging conflict and debate. They seek to help students rise to higher stages of moral reasoning and hence to higher levels of principled judgment.

  James MacGregor Burns

  Teacher, Choices, Levels

  James MacGregor Burns (2012). “Leadership”, p.772, Open Road Media

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• The right is absolute ... government has no authority to forbid me from owning a firearm ... the debate is not about guns. It is about freedom.

  Tom McClintock

  Gun, Government, Authority

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• For all its faults, it is partisanship - based on core principles- that clarifies our debates, that prevents one party from straying too far from the mainstream and that constantly refreshes our politics with new ideas and new leaders.

  Tom DeLay

  Party, Ideas, Leader

  Farewell Address to House of Representatives, delivered 8 June 2006

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• Let us be peaceable as near as we can: let us relent of our own right: let us not strive for these worldly goods, honour and reputation: let us bear all wrongs and outrages, rather than be moved to any debate through our own fault. But in the meanwhile, let us fight for God's truth with tooth and nail.

  John Calvin

  Fighting, Teeth, Nails

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• If winning is the only value, why debate when you can suppress?

  John Leo

  Winning, Ifs, Values

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• It's often the case that when a critic uses an embarrassingly accurate term to describe what a wrong-doer is doing, the wrong-doer protests: "Why don't you use my white-washed, conscience-soothing euphemism?" Such euphemisms, they claim, help promote "civilized debate."

  Steve Kangas

  White, Use, Doers

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• The reason to split a court is for administrative purposes, and in the past there has been much debate about the liberal decisions of the Ninth Circuit and so forth; and people have wanted to get out of the Ninth Circuit for that reason.

  Michael K. Simpson

  Past, People, Decision

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• The government considers the aborting of innocent unborn children a natural right. Yet, there is widespread debate still about whether the death penalty for convicted murderers is "cruel and unusual punishment."

  Joseph Farah

  Children, Punishment, Government

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• Rick Santorum said this week that his 12-year-old could out-reason me about God. Look, I am not about to debate a home-schooled 12-year-old. I have enough trouble with Sarah Palin.

  Bill Maher

  Home, Years, Looks

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• It has been my pleasure to speak at many Federalist Society gatherings around the country, and I think one thing your organization has definitely done is to contribute to free speech, free debate, and most importantly public understanding of, awareness of, and appreciation of the Constitution. So that's a marvelous contribution, and in a way I must say I'm jealous at how the Federalist Society has thrived at law schools.

  Nadine Strossen

  Country, Appreciation, School

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• I want to commend the [Federalist] Society for bringing together the best minds from right, left, and center to debate the most pressing legal issues of the day.

  Samuel Alito

  Issues, Mind, Together

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• A Green Party candidate would be very different from a Democrat or Republican and should be heard. I was the candidate first time a Green or any progressive third party has ever been in a national televised debate. I was in five of them. And the response from the public was overwhelming.

  Peter Camejo

  Party, Would Be, Green

  "Raw Data: Foxnews.com Interviews Peter Camejo". Foxnews.com Interview, www.foxnews.com. February 17, 2004.

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• My impression was and is that many programming languages and tools represent solutions looking for problems, and I was determined that my work should not fall into that category. Thus, I follow the literature on programming languages and the debates about programming languages primarily looking for ideas for solutions to problems my colleagues and I have encountered in real applications. Other programming languages constitute a mountain of ideas and inspiration-but it has to be mined carefully to avoid featurism and inconsistencies.

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Real, Fall, Inspiration

  Bjarne Stroustrup (1994). “The Design and Evolution of C++”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• The debate is over. The scientific community has spoken in a virtually unanimous voice. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity.

  Bernie Sanders

  Real, Voice, Community

  Bernie Sanders (2016). “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe in”, p.103, Profile Books

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• Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Produce, Dissent, Dissension

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• Nothing is gained by debate on non-debatable subjects.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Subjects

  Theodore Roosevelt (2005). “Fear God and Take Your Own Part”, p.75, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The ethical debates are like stones in a stream. The water runs around them. You haven't seen any biological technologies held up for one week by any of these debates.

  Ray Kurzweil

  Running, Technology, Water

  "The New Humanists: Science at the Edge". Book by John Brockman, 2003.

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• There's a time for debate and a time for consensus. There's a time for advocacy and time for first principles.

  Anthony Kennedy

  Principles, Firsts, Advocacy

  "Justice Kennedy holds court in school" by Terry Frieden, www.cnn.com. January 28, 2002.

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• Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in their capacity to arrive at the truth.

  W. H. Auden

  Believe, Fields, Capacity

  "Forewords and Afterwords" by W. H. Auden, ("The Protestant Mystics"), (p. 52), 1973.

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• He who writes the Resolved Clause, wins the debate.

  M. Stanton Evans

  Writing, Winning, Clauses

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