Debate Quotes - Page 26

• ... an inaccurate use of words produces such a strange confusion in all reasoning, that in the heat of debate, the combatants, unable to distinguish their friends from their foes, fall promiscuously on both.

  Maria Edgeworth

  Fall, Confusion, Use

  Maria Edgeworth, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1824). “Works of Maria Edgeworth: Letters to literary ladies. Castle Rackrent. Leonora. Essay on Irish bulls. 1824”, p.40

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• Language matters because whoever controls the words controls the conversation, because whoever controls the conversation controls its outcome, because whoever frames the debate has already won it, because telling the truth has become harder and harder to achieve in an America drowning in Orwellian Newspeak.

  Erica Jong

  America, Outcomes, Matter

  Erica Jong (2007). “Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life”, p.9, Penguin

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• Someone responding to the story said 'real spies do not speak like that'. Well, I am a spy and that is how they talk. Whenever we had a debate in the office on how to handle crimes, they do not defend due process - they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general.

  Edward Snowden

  Real, Nsa, People

  "Edward Snowden, NSA files source: 'If they want to get you, in time they will'". Interview with Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2013.

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• Self-censorship, the most important and most successful form of censorship, is rampant. Debate is identified with dissent, which is in turn identified with disloyalty. There is a widespread feeling that, in this new, open-ended emergency, we may not be able to 'afford' our traditional freedoms.

  Susan Sontag

  Successful, Self, Feelings

  Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.152, Macmillan

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• Men of many words sometimes argue for the sake of talking; men of ready tongues frequently dispute for the sake of victory; men in public life often debate for the sake of opposing the ruling party, or from any other motive than the love of truth.

  George Crabbe

  Party, Men, Talking

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• Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.

  Catherine the Great

  Long, People, Phrases

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• Why did the consensus of Christian churches not only accept these astonishing views but establish them as the only true form of Christian doctrine? . . . these religious debates - questions of the nature of God, or of Christ - simultaneously bear social and political implications that are crucial to the development of Christianity as an institutional religion. In simplest terms, ideas which bear implications contrary to that development come to be labeled as 'heresy'; ideas which implicitly support it become 'orthodox.'

  Elaine Pagels

  Christian, Religious, Views

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• It's so much easier to debate people when you can pretend that they hold moronic position that they don't actually believe.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Believe, Nsa, People

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• I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged. At the very least, we should debate. We should debate whether or not we are going to relinquish our rights, or whether or not we are going to have a full and able debate over whether or not we can live within the Constitution, or whether or not we have to go around the Constitution.

  Rand Paul

  Rights, Nsa, Able

  "Rand Paul's NSA Filibuster: His Notable Quotes" by Andrew Desiderio, www.realclearpolitics.com. May 21, 2015.

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• One of the things we're going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy. Because there are some trade-offs involved. I welcome this debate, and I think it's healthy for our democracy.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Nsa, People

  "Around The World" with Michael Holmes, www.cnn.com. June 7, 2013.

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• Wit has its place in debate; in controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive.

  Theodore Parker

  Weapons, Offensive, Wit

  Theodore Parker (1871). “Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons”, p.299

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• The perennial architectural debate has always been, and will continue to be, about art versus use, visions versus pragmatism, aesthetics versus social responsibility. In the end, these unavoidable conflicts provide architecture's essential and productive tensions; the tragedy is that so little of it rises above the level imposed by compromise, and that this is the only work most of us see and know.

  Ada Louise Huxtable

  Art, Responsibility, Vision

  Ada Louise Huxtable (2010). “On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change”, p.34, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• A fool is he that comes to preach or prate,
  When men with swords their right and wrong debate.
  [It., Chi conta i colpi e la dovuta offesa,
  Mentr' arde la tenzon, misura e pesa?]

  Torquato Tasso

  Men, Fool, Folly

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• The word 'tolerance' once meant we all have the right to argue rationally for our deepest convictions in the public arena. Now it means those convictions are not even subject to rational debate.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Mean, Tolerance, Arena

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• Sandy was particularly destructive because it was prevented from moving back out to sea by a "blocking pattern" associated with the jet stream. There's debate about this, but one recent study suggested that melting sea ice in the Arctic may lead to such blocking.

  Nicholas D. Kristof

  Block, Moving, Ice

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• In my downtime, for fun, I engage in philosophical internet debates. Yeah, I'm that guy.

  Scott Clifton

  Fun, Philosophical, Guy

  "60 Seconds With Scott Clifton - One Life To Live", February 11, 2010.

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• As debate is rare in the House of Representatives, since nearly all real business is done in the committees, it is very natural that such debate as there is should be very oratorical, should be

  D. W Brogan

  Real, House, Done

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• One of the reasons a strategist never sits in a stadium and gets caught up in the crowds - and never sits watching a debate in person - is because the vast majority of American voters watch these political events on television.

  Ed Rollins

  Political, Majority, Events

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• We mistake politics for legislative debate. You can be passionate without being personal.

  Richard Dreyfuss

  Mistake, Passionate

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• Anything can go wrong in a debate, and Obama is not a perfect debater.

  Ron Fournier

  Perfect

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• We must remember that democracy works when given time to develop, mature and deliver. People must have access to information for informed debate. Government institutions must treat citizens fairly, and with dignity, while responding to their needs.

  Atifete Jahjaga

  Government, People, Democracy

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• Science fiction works best when it stimulates debate.

  Greg Bear

  Fiction, Science Fiction

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• It is important that the decorum and dignity of the House is upheld at all times. The image of Parliament in the public mind should be one where proceedings, debates and discussions take place with a view to resolve issues through a constructive and co-operative approach.

  Pratibha Patil

  Views, Issues, House

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• Having spent a number of my younger years with trade-union parents attending NUT annual conferences, I feel comfortable with an agenda in my hand and a procedural format for debate.

  Saffron Burrows

  Hands, Years, Nuts

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• When you exist in the centre of a debate, as a topic, a hypothesis - otherised and stigmatised - you become the prop in a proposition.

  Randa Abdel-Fattah

  Topics, Hypothesis, Props

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