Quotes on Controversy

To all new truths, or renovation of old truths, it must be as in the ark between the destroyed and the about-to-be renovated world. The raven must be sent out before the dove, and ominous controversy must precede peace and the olive wreath.

Whenever I write anything that sets up controversy its meaning is distorted almost instantly. Even the editorial writers of newspapers seem to be unable to understand the plainest sentence.

No sane person should believe that something is subjective merely because it cannot be settled beyond controversy.

A civilization in which there is not a continuous controversy about important issues is on the way to totalitarianism and death

The very purpose of a bill of rights is to withdraw certain subjects from...political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities.

Great people aren't those who are happy at times of convienience and content, but of how they are in times of catastrophy and controversy.

He draws us to Himself by grace, by example, by power, by lovingness, by beauty, by pardon, and above all by the Blessed Sacrament. Every one who has had anything to do with ministering to souls has seen the power which Jesus has. Talent is not needed. Eloquence is comparatively unattractive. Learning is often beside the mark. Controversy simply repels... All the attraction of the Church is in Jesus, and His chief attraction is the Blessed Sacrament

In mathematics there are no true controversies.

Change is scientific; progress is ethical; change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves.

Homophobia and the closet are allies. Like an unhealthy co-dependent relationship they need each other to survive. One plays the victim living in fear and shame while the other plays the persecutor policing what is ‘normal’. The only way to dismantle homophobia is for every gay man and lesbian in the world to come out and live authentic lives. Once they realise how normal we are and see themselves in us….the controversy is over.

Global warming is controversial, of course, but the controversy is mainly over whether human activity is driving it.

The very power of [textbook writers] depends on the fact that they are dealing with a boy: a boy who thinks he is ‘doing’ his ‘English prep’ and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.

Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.