Controversial Quotes

• I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.

  Nora Ephron

  Intelligent, People, Offensive

  Nora Ephron (1978). “Scribble Scribble Notes on the Media”

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• A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.

  Jane Smiley

  Children, Ideas, May

  FaceBook post by Jane Smiley from Jul 28, 2012

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• If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Mean, Leader, Want

  "An interview with Nixon: 'Defeated, but not finished'". Interview with Nick Thimmesch, Chicago Tribune, December 11, 1978.

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• If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.

  Julian Assange

  Media, Journalism, Controversy

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

  Steven Morrissey

  Memorable, Easy, Pops

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight - and when they come out, they're gay.

  Benjamin Carson

  Crazy, Stupid, Gay

  "Ben Carson apologizes for comments on gay people" by Eric Bradner and Alexandra Jaffe, edition.cnn.com. March 5, 2015.

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• When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best.

  Donald Trump

  Illegal Things, People, Mexican

  "Divided Mexico unites against Trump: 'He has no respect for human beings'" by Jo Tuckman, www.theguardian.com. July 6, 2015.

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• Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men - such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?

  Sepp Blatter

  Soccer, Football, Volleyball

  "Make-up and short shorts improving women's football, says Brazilian official". www.theguardian.com. June 16, 2015.

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• I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

  Donald Trump

  Wall, Mexican Border, Southern

  Donald Trump's Announcement on Presidential Campaign Launch at the Trump Tower in New York City, New York, www.washingtonpost.com. June 16, 2015.

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• I think it is very difficult today to have a reasoned public discourse on any controversial subject. Certainly, election years present a complicating factor.

  John Poindexter

  Thinking, Years, Today

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• When The Simpsons came around, there really was nothing else like it on TV. It's hard to imagine, but when Fox first took the plunge with it, it was considered controversial to put animation on prime time.

  Matt Groening

  Firsts, Foxes, Tvs

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• From this experience we have learned that in a big party it is important to have the necessary and often controversial discussions on policy issues such as the health system while in opposition.

  Angela Merkel

  Party, Issues, Important

  Interview With Bertrand Benoit, Andrew Gowers, www.ft.com. July 20, 2005.

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• There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists.

  Cullen Hightower

  Issues, People, Humorists

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• Thinking of the universe as a computer is controversial.

  Seth Lloyd

  Thinking, Computer, Universe

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• Well I think people think sex is controversial. Not always, but certainly it's something to be discussed.

  Liam Neeson

  Sex, Thinking, People

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• I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.

  Shakira

  People, Periods, Admire

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• Early British pop was helped tremendously by the writing of Bob Dylan who had proved you could write about political and quite controversial subjects. Certainly what we did followed on from what was happening with the angry young men in the theatre.

  Pete Townshend

  Writing, Men, Political

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• The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial.

  Ali Khamenei

  Rights, Issues, Fundamentals

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• I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Book, Not Afraid

  Flannery O'Connor (1988). “The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor”, p.358, Macmillan

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• Sense data are much more controversial than qualia, because they are associated with a controversial theory of perception - that one perceives the world by perceiving one's sense-data, or something like that.

  David Chalmers

  Data, Perception, World

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• Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.

  Erma Bombeck

  Family, Food, Cereal

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• Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

  Dean Acheson

  Acceptance, Political, Politics

  Dean Acheson (1962). “Real and Imagined Handicaps of Our Democracy in the Conduct of Its Foreign Relations: An Address, the Harry S. Truman Library, Institute for National and International Affairs”

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• If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention.

  Simon Cowell

  Attention, Mouths, Bigs

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• The frustrating part of being tagged 'controversial' is people go looking for trouble where there isn't any to look for.

  Salman Rushdie

  People, Looks, Trouble

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• But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.

  Liam Neeson

  Sex, Knows

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