Discussion Quotes

“Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

[Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa,23 November 2004]”
― Desmond Tutu

“Elinor agreed to it all, for she did not think he deserved the compliment of rational opposition.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

“Discussion is impossible with someone who claims not to seek the truth, but already to possess it.”
― Romain Rolland, Above The Battle

“In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.”
― Edgar Allen Poe

“In fact, the more each person can remove his or her ego from the discussion and focus on the subject matter, the more fruitful the conversation will be for all involved.”
― Matthew Kelly, The Seven Levels of Intimacy: The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved

“There is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

“Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.”
― Iain Pears, The Dream of Scipio

“I think there's a difference between (a) offending people for its own sake, which I don't necessarily want to do, because some people are good and decent and it would be unkind to upset them simply to indulge my own self-importance, and (b) challenging their prejudices, their preconceptions, or their comfortable assumptions. I'm very happy to do that. But we need to be on our guard when people say they're offended. No one actually has the right to go through life without being offended. Some people think they can say" such-and-such offends me "and that will stop the" offensive "words or behaviour and force the" offender "to apologise. I'm very much against that tactic. No one should be able to shut down discussion by making their feelings more important than the search for truth. If such people are offended, they should put up with it.”
― Philip Pullman

“[Responding to the Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce's question whether he traced his descent from an ape on his mother's or his father's side]

A man has no reason to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would rather be aman—a man of restless and versatile intellect—who… plunges into scientific questions with which he has no real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric, and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious prejudice.”
― Thomas Huxley

“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance.”
― Robert Quillen

“[Doubt] is not a new idea; this is the idea of the age of reason. This is the philosophy that guided the men who made the democracy that we live under. The idea that no one really knew how to run a government led to the idea that we should arrange a system by which new ideas could be developed, tried out, and tossed out if necessary, with more new ideas bought in - a trial-and-error system. This method was a result of the fact that science was already showing itself to be a successful venture at the end of the eighteenth century. Even then it was clear to socially minded people that the openness of possibilities was an opportunity, and that doubt and discussion were essential to progress into the unknown. If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar...doubt is not to be feared, but welcomed and discussed.”
― Richard P. Feynman

“Instead of seeing how much pain I can dish out towards those I disagree with, or who I believe have done me wrong, I seek to follow the golden rule and use my words and behavior to create more of what the world needs – love, compassion, and connection.”
― Aspen Baker

“The decision is your own voice, an opinion is the echo of someone else's voice.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“A lively discussion is usually helpful, because the hottest fire makes the hardest steel.”
― Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor

“The real purpose of the opposition is to minimize the amount of money the ruling party will have stolen from the people at the end of its term.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Priusquam autem ad creationem, hoc est ad finem omnis disputationis, veniamus: tentanda omnia existimo.

However, before we come to [special] creation, which puts an end to all discussion: I think we should try everything else.”
― Johannes Kepler, Johannes Kepler New Astronomy

“Wenn ich den Eindruck hätte, dass in dem, was Sie da sagen, auch nur ein Körnchen Vernunft steckt, würde ich mir vielleicht die Mühe machen, mich auf eine solche Diskussion einzulassen. Aber wie die Dinge liegen, werde ich einfach an etwas anderes denken, während Sie weiter vor sich hin plappern.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

“Some of these things I understand, some I do not.
It makes no difference.
The discussions give me an excuse to talk to him, fatherly conversations I cannot have with my father, who would like me to be a lawyer.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

“—Tu madre debe ser muy diferente de la mía.
—¿Cómo es la tuya?
—Nunca discute por nada.
—Porque no le has planteado nunca algo que no pueda.”
― E.M. Forster, Maurice

“Discussing ideas can potentially increase the kinetic energy of ideas to a point where ideas turn into innovation.”
― Sukant Ratnakar, Quantraz

“We could kill them,' Stone suggested, not helpfully.
It would have been a tense moment, except Heart sighed impatiently and said, 'Line-grandfather, not in front of company.'
Delin lifted a hand. 'I know Stone is merely stimulating discussion.'
Pearl eyed Stone and lifted her spines. 'Perhaps Stone could stop doing that.”
― Martha Wells, The Edge of Worlds

“Is Zürich actually a city or a town?
What is a city? What is a town? I ask back.
A type of human settlement? Of a certain size.
What is a human settlement?
Seriously?
Yeah… seriously… maybe it’s easiest to define things first before talking about them.”
― Ryan Gelpke, 2018: Our Summer of Creeping Boredom and Beautiful Shimmering

“You know we are doomed anyway, right?
Beg your pardon?
No matter what we do, what we archive, what status we have, how much material wealth we acquire, we all die. Some of us in terrible pain whilst we do so… Life is inherently cruel, there is no other way of putting it.”
― Ryan Gelpke, 2018: Our Summer of Creeping Boredom and Beautiful Shimmering

“Some things are better left unfed.”
― Wyatt B Pringle, Jr.

“All of us ought to be willing to argue the merits of our case without resorting to tactics unbecoming of our worldviews.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

“I always love to start my class or discussion with generated questions! When an expectation is known, meeting needs becomes easier.”
― Daniel ANIKOR

“Discussions don't matter when decisions are already made.”
― Garima Soni - words world

“Do not discuss with anyone if he does not have the principles of discussion because it is just a waste of time without results.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“Light brings greater knowledge.
Knowledge brings greater understanding.
And twelve people discussing something
rationally and reasonably,
questioning each other,
trying to get it right,
guarantees greater knowledge and greater understanding...

Some say that last Thursday was a sad day for American democracy,
but I felt as I did when Watergate came to light,
and Nixon resigned.
For me it was the act that was sad,
that one person was that corrupt
and those around him that corruptible.

For me, that it came to light and led to consequences
is the triumph.”
― Shellen Lubin

“I am choosing the bear every time unless we can explicitly state that it is in a man's true nature to do the malicious and immoral things that he often does.”
― Niedria D. Kenny