Debate Quotes - Page 15

• 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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• It's a legitimate point to debate. But it's part of the reality. It's happening, but it's also true they (looters) are in the distinct minority. I think there's a hero on every street corner in New Orleans, and I think the reporting has shown that. I think the balance has been there.

  Dan Rather

  Hero, Reality, Thinking

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• While patriotism is often lauded as an unquestionable value, the status of patriotism is a problem for many thoughtful people. It is particularly troublesome for people who care about the common good but are alienated by the all too frequent use of patriotism and patriotic symbols to stifle debate, tarnish the images of rival candidates, or arouse popular support for aggressive military policies.

  Stephen Nathanson

  Military, Patriotic, Thoughtful

  Stephen Nathanson (1993). “Patriotism, Morality, and Peace”, p.11, Rowman & Littlefield

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• It is not the principled partisan, however obnoxious he may seem to his opponents, who degrades our public debate, but the preening, self-styled statesman who elevates compromise to a first principle.

  Tom DeLay

  Self, Political, Principles

  Farewell Address to House of Representatives, delivered 8 June 2006

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• You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas.

  Barack Obama

  Ideas, Voice, Pro Life

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

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• We have to make education a priority, but all this debate about education and testing is almost beside the point. We only spend a fraction of the money on education that we spend on arms buildups. Under a Kucinich administration, education becomes one of the top domestic priorities. We put money into it. We cause the government to be vitally involved in it. And we make sure our children have the love of knowledge.

  Dennis Kucinich

  Education, Children, Knowledge

  "Kucinich: Osama Should Not Be Assassinated". The Slate Interview, www.slate.com. September 12, 2007.

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• In my family, there were Kei and Minoru and then there were the rest. Everyone in my family is very opinionated and everyone tried to join the debate. But by the time my turn came, there was nothing left to say. I couldn't keep pace, so I looked to do my own things.

  Akira Mori

  Family, Pace, Turns

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• We now have an opportunity, though, to do something we didn't do in the industrial age, and that is to get a leg up on this, to bring the public in quickly, to have an informed debate.

  Jeremy Rifkin

  Opportunity, Age, Legs

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• Libertarian presidential candidate André Marrou's idea is that "government power is opposed to individual liberty." Must we still debate such sophomoric notions?... Besides, liberty, although very important, is not the only value.

  George Will

  Government, Ideas, Presidential

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