Polemics Quotes

• Well, I am not 100 percent sure of the definition of polemic, but it wasn't meant to convince anybody of anything.

  Art Spiegelman

  Definitions, Wells, Convince

  "Art Spiegelman: The Sky Is Falling". Interview with Steven Heller, www.aiga.org. October 01, 2004.

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• An important work of architecture will create polemics.

  Richard Meier

  Important, Architecture, Important Work

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• It is better to discuss things, to argue and engage in polemics than make perfidious plans of mutual destruction.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Engagement, Arguing, Destruction

  Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, Green Cross International (2011). “Mikhail Gorbachev: Prophet of Change : from the Cold War to a Sustainable World”, p.263, CLAIRVIEW BOOKS

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• When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Reason, Shock, Electrical

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• Genuine polemics approach a book as lovingly as a cannibal spices a baby.

  Walter Benjamin

  Girl, Baby, Book

  Walter Benjamin (2016). “One-Way Street”, p.50, Harvard University Press

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• Any work of architecture that has with it some discussion, some polemic, I think is good. It shows that people are interested, people are involved.

  Richard Meier

  Thinking, People, Architecture

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• Even a polemic has some justification if one considers that my own first poetic experiments began during a dictatorship and mark the origin of the Hermetic movement.

  Salvatore Quasimodo

  Movement, Firsts, Poetic

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• The camera can photograph thought. It's better than a paragraph of sweet polemic.

  Dirk Bogarde

  Photography, Sweet, Art

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• Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

  Ferran Adria

  Innovation, Avant Garde

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• But I still read Shaw on a regular basis. What I love is the nakedness of the polemic and the irresistible good humour. For me, 'Major Barbara' is the greatest of all the plays in that it starts from the rational and proceeds to the ecstatic in a spectacular way, and leaves you very confused if you cling to Euclidean logic.

  Tony Kushner

  Confused, Love Is, Play

  "Tony Kushner: 'At first I was horrified'". Interview with Michael Billington, www.theguardian.com. August 15, 2011.

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• The two main ideas that run through all of my writing, whether it be literary criticism or political polemic are these: I am strong in favor of liberty and I hate fraud.

  H. L. Mencken

  Running, Strong, Hate

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• In the critic's vocabulary, the word "precursor" is indispensable, but it should be cleansed of all connotations of polemic or rivalry. The fact is that every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future." -- Essay: "Kafka and his Precursors

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Past, Vocabulary, Facts

  "Kafka and His Precursors" (1951) (translation by James E. Irby)

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• I wasn't trying to write a corrective novel - that would just end up tasting like medicine, and I tried to stay away from polemics as best I could. I think that, if anything, Fobbit is my way of showing readers there's another side to war - the backstage of combat, if you will. If you play a word association game with Americans and say "war," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Soldiers running across a battlefield through a hail of bullets, right? Rambo, smoke, explosions. In Fobbit, I hope readers will see something a little different

  Dave Abrams

  Running, War, Writing

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Writing, Past, Precursor

  "Kafka and His Precursors" (1951) (translation by James E. Irby)

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• Literary criticism now is all pranks and polemics.

  Mason Cooley

  Criticism, Pranks, Literary Criticism

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• No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes the scripture.

  Learned Hand

  Support, Doubt, Devil

  Learned Hand (1959). “The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses”

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• History is but the polemics of the victor.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  History

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• The camera can photograph thought.

  Dirk Bogarde

  Photography, Cameras, Photograph

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• I think the problem with polemics is that it's general and it's lazy. When you say, "This is bad," that's a general thing. We're more interested in asking the question.

  Tony Goldwyn

  Thinking, Lazy, Asking

  Source: collider.com

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• Leading the Jewish people is not easy -- we are a divided, obstinate, highly individualistic people who have cultivated faith, sharp wittedness and polemics to a very high level.

  Shimon Peres

  People, Levels, Easy

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• Monster is a compassionate picture without any obvious agenda. And it's effective precisely because it's not a polemic.

  Stephanie Zacharek

  Monsters, Agendas, Obvious

  "'Monster'". www.salon.com. December 26, 2003.

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• The polemics of right-wing radio are putting nothing less than hate onto the airwaves, into the marketplace, electing it to office, teaching it in schools, and exalting it as freedom.

  Patricia J. Williams

  Hate, Teaching, School

  Patricia J. Williams (1995). “The Rooster's Egg”, p.51, Harvard University Press

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• My father's little library consisted chiefly of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, at a time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen in my way since it was now resolved I should not be a clergyman.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Father, Book, Library

  Source: www.foundingfatherquotes.com

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• Well, I'm not involved in polemics. I never wanted to have any position of power, and I don't have it.

  Kaija Saariaho

  Position Of Power, Wells, Wanted

  Source: www.sfgate.com

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• A play is basically a long, formalistic polemic. You can write it without the poetry, and if you do, you may have a pretty good play. We know this because we see plays in translation. Not many people speak Norwegian or Danish or whatever guys like Ibsen spoke, or Russian - yet we understand Chekhov and the others.

  David Mamet

  Writing, Play, Long

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