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Quotes about debate

72 quotes from 61 people

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Any church that imprisons a man because he has used an argument against its creed, will simply convince the world that it cannot answer the argument.
Robert G. Ingersoll1833–1899The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
- Religion
Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address (1801)
Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II (2 April 1775)
Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV (June 1784) p. 545
- Clever Jabs
It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.
Joseph Joubert1754–1824The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address to ANPA
To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.
Henry Kissinger1923–2023
Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by-product.
CLChristopher Lasch1932–1994
In countries and epochs in which communication is impeded, soon all other liberties wither; discussion dies by inanition, ignorance of the opinion of others becomes rampant, imposed opinions triumph.
Primo Levi1919–1987The Drowned and the Saved (1986)
- Liberty
A great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional…values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Abolition of Man
The absent are easily refuted.
C. S. Lewis1898–1963
I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.
DMDudley Malone1882–1950
Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to fight for them.
Thomas Mann1875–1955The Magic Mountain (1924), Ch. 6
- Ideas
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Chapter II (1 of 2)In context
- Freedom
If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Chapter II (1 of 2)In context
- Truth & Lies