Discussion Quotes - Page 22

• What chiefly distinguishes the daily press is its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion.

  H. L. Mencken

  Fear, Reflection, Issues

  H. L. Mencken, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers (2010). “H.L. Mencken: Prejudices: First, Second, and Third Series”, Hubsta Ltd

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• Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.

  Pericles

  Wise, Wisdom, Block

  As recorded by Thucydides, in the "History of the Peloponnesian War". Translated by Richard Crawley, 1951.

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• I do not make films which are prescriptive, and I do not make films that are conclusive. You do not walk out of my films with a clear feeling about what is right and wrong. They're ambivalent. You walk away with work to do. My films are a sort of investigation. They ask questions . . .. Sometimes I hear that some [Hollywood] studio is interested in me. Then they discover that this is the guy who works with no script, that there is no casting discussion, no interference, that I have the final cut, and that does it.

  Mike Leigh

  Cutting, Guy, Feelings

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• Hence the sterile, uninspiring futility of a great many theoretical discussions of ethics, and the resentment which many people feel towards such discussions: moral principles remain in their minds as floating abstractions, offering them a goal they cannot grasp and demanding that they reshape their souls in its image, thus leaving them with a burden of undefinable moral guilt.

  Ayn Rand

  Offering, People, Goal

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• Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive. The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all, and to burst with boldness and good-will into the silent sea of their souls is often to confer on them the first of obligations.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Grief, Sea, People

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.303, Penguin

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• This time, there have been a lot of interesting discussions about the subject matter, and I've had a good time talking about it. And in some of the cases, I'm not just signing books - I'm showing slides and talking about the work

  Leonard Nimoy

  Book, Inspiration, Talking

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• The stage, the screen, the novel, casual conversation, the street discussion, and too often the fireside intimacies are punctuated with blasphemy, to which may be added, as of the same nature, coarse, ribald jokes, foul stories, and low small talk. Some would have us believe that profanity is a sign of masculinity and emotion maturity.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Believe, Maturity, Stories

  Ezra Taft Benson (1988). “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson”, Bookcraft Pubs

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• I met a bunch of comic-book writers at the Metropolis convention and there was such an interesting discussion about the story of 'Supergirl' and trying to get it right. It can be a challenge, because you don't want it to be the same as the Superman story.

  Helen Slater

  Book, Interesting, Challenges

  "Helen Slater Talks About Smallville". movieweb.com. November 1, 2007.

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• Anyone who says that Iran will commit suicide with its nuclear power is a moron and has no business in discussion.

  Reza Aslan

  Suicide, Iran, Nuclear

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• Hipsters seek refuge in church, Our Lady of Perpetual Subculture. There is some discussion as to whether or not they are still cool but then they are calmed by the obscure location and the arrival of their kind. Keep the address to yourself, let the rabble fund it themselves. Wow, this crappy performance art is really making me feel no so terrible about my various emotional issues.

  Colson Whitehead

  Art, Hipster, Emotional

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• One of the things that often gets lost in discussions of depression is that you know it's ridiculous. You know it's ridiculous while you're experiencing it. You know that most people manage to listen to their messages, and eat lunch, and organise themselves to take a shower and go out the front door, and that it's not a big deal. And yet you are nonetheless in its grip and you are unable to figure out any way around it.

  Andrew Solomon

  Doors, Lunch, People

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• There has been failure, particularly with the effort to protect our coast and our marsh. And that was the biggest topic of discussion in a very frank meeting we had with the president.

  Bobby Jindal

  Effort, President, Topics

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• We must recognize that the attempt to set forth the temporal course commonly referred to as the "evolution of mankind" is merely an attempt to structure events for convenient accessibility. Consequently, we must exclude from our discussion as far as possible such misleading notions as "development" and "progress."

  Jean Gebser

  Progress, Events, Development

  Jean Gebser (1985). “The Ever-Present Origin”

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• I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them. I don't believe I'm compromising on my gameplay ideals at all. [But] any artist who doesn't want his or her work in front of the largest audience possible is nuts.

  Warren Spector

  Believe, Artist, Nuts

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• So how do theists respond to arguments like this? [The Argument from Evil] They say there is a reason for evil, but it is a mystery. Well, let me tell you this: I'm actually one hundred feet tall even though I only appear to be six feet tall. You ask me for proof of this. I have a simple answer: it's a mystery. Just accept my word for it on faith. And that's just the logic theists use in their discussions of evil.

  Quentin Smith

  Simple, Feet, Evil

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• When investors, particularly investment bankers, talk about splitting up companies, there's a lot of discussion about multiple expansion, and the reality is multiple expansion is an outcome, not a strategy.

  Irene Rosenfeld

  Reality, Bankers, Expansion

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• One of the remarks made by farmers at their public discussion of these problems suggest that they are rapidly ceasing to think of animals as sentient beings at all. If you handle vast numbers of creatures which are in any case going to die soon, it is, I suppose, easy to get into a state of mind in which they seem to be merely machines.

  Kingsley Martin

  Animal, Thinking, Numbers

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• No danger flowing from speech can be deemed clear and present unless the incidence of the evil apprehended is so imminent that it may befall before there is an opportunity for full discussion. Only an emergency can justify repression.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Opportunity, Evil, Justice

  Whitney v. California (concurring opinion) (1927) See OliverWendell Holmes, Jr. 29

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• The nation relies upon public discussion as one of the indispensable means to attain correct solutions to problems of social welfare. Curtailment of free speech limits this open discussion. Our whole history teaches that adjustment of social relations through reason is possible when free speech is maintained.

  Stanley Forman Reed

  Mean, Rely Upon, Justice

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• The only way to escape misrepresentation is never to commit oneself to any critical judgement that makes an impact - that is, never to say anything. I still, however think that the best way to promote profitable discussion is to be as clear as possible with oneself about what one sees and judges, to try and establish the essential discriminations in the given field of interest, and to state them as clearly as one can (for disagreement, if necessary).

  F. R. Leavis

  Thinking, Impact, Judging

  1948 The Great Tradition, ch.1. Leavis, Q(ueenie) D(orothy) 1906-81 British literary critic.

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• If the minority, and a small one too, is suffered to dictate to the majority, after measures have undergone the most solemn discussions by the representatives of the people, and their will through this medium is enacted into a law, there can be no security for life, liberty, or property; nor, if the laws are not to govern, can any man know how to conduct himself in safety.

  George Washington

  Men, Law, People

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1836). “The Writings of George Washington: pt. IV. Letters official and private, from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his life: (v. 10) May, 1789-November, 1794. (v. 11) November, 1794-December, 1799”, p.440

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• The discussion of any subject is a right that you have brought into the world with your heart and tongue. Resign your heart's blood before you part with this inestimable privilege of man.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Heart, Men, Blood

  1812 An Address to the Irish People.

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• I don't think my films are going to get rid of racism or prejudice. I think the best thing my films can do is provoke discussion.

  Spike Lee

  Thinking, Racism, Prejudice

  Spike Lee, Cynthia Fuchs (2002). “Spike Lee: Interviews”, p.26, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• The laws of art are eternal and don't change at all, as the moral laws don't change in human beings.

  Max Beckmann

  Art, Law, Moral

  Catalog Nationalgalerie Berlin, DDR, p. 109, 1986.

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• The discussion of the game of marbles seems to have led us into rather deep waters. But in the eyes of children the history of the game of marbles has quite as much importance as the history of religion or of forms of government. It Is a history, moreover, that is magnificently spontaneous; and it was therefore perhaps not entirely useless to seek to throw light on the child's judgment of moral value by a preliminary study of the social behaviour of children amongst themselves.

  Jean Piaget

  Children, Eye, Deep Water

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