Debate Quotes

It profiteth a man more to discuss one hour with his equals than to study one day on his own.

Debate is healthy and no one in this chamber - starting with me - has a monopoly on being right.

Gordon has spotted that what we really fear is the consequence of this rushing tide of turbulence of diversity, which is why he is concentrating on the identity, Britishness, which will form a glue that will keep us together while everything is conspiring to force us apart

Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword.

The purely agitational attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

Never contend with one that is foolish, proud, positive, testy, or with a superior, or a clown, in matter of argument.

A long dispute means both parties are wrong.

The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right.

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle it without debate.

Ignorance is no argument.

Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it.

Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence.

Just a few verses away from the ten commandments is an order to commit genocide, rape, and slavery. I don't object to what people do in the name of religion - I'm objecting to the scripture itself.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without [necessarily] accepting it.

Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole,
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound.
But while you debate half empty or half full,
It slowly rises, your love is going to drown.

We want our society to be characterized by vigorous debate and dissent, where to disagree is part and parcel of a vibrant community ... and not think that those who disagree, who express dissent, are disloyal or unpatriotic.