Quotessence
Home / Topics / Contentious Quotes

Contentious Quotes

Browse 53 quotes about Contentious.

Related topics

PeopleThinking

Contentious Quotes

“In any contentious debate, some people will find it advantageous to align themselves with the crowd, while a smaller number will come to see themselves as persecuted outsiders. This may especially hold in a field like climate science, where the data is noisy and the predictions are hard to experience in a visceral way. And it may be especially common in the United States, which is admirably independent-minded.”

MindIndependentDebateDataNoisyCrowdOutsiderPredictionContentious
Book:The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't
Create image

“The good news is you can get a lot of information off the Internet for free and in a hurry. But I think the breaking up of the media, which is otherwise kind of healthy, has contributed to less actual reporting and a louder, more contentious, more divisive public discourse, highlighting conflict, sometimes falsely.”

ThinkingKindSometimesMediaInformationInternetHealthyConflictNewsDiscourseGood NewsPublic DiscourseContentiousHighlighting
Author:William J. Clinton
Create image

“This is a perfect example of the power and ridiculousness of a website like Wikipedia. I did give a slightly contentious graduation speech, where I decided not to be funny as my classmates had hoped, which was why I was chosen. I was not valedictorian, that's for sure. Instead, I talked about the failure to communicate between the administration and the teachers and students. That's what was contentious about it. At some point, somebody wrote about that incident on my Wikipedia page. And then somebody added the bit about me exposing my genitals to the crowd.”

GivingBitsPerfectTeacherExampleStudentsSpeechPagesDecidedCrowdsCommunicateChosenAdministrationIncidentsWebsiteExposingWikipediaTeacher And StudentClassmatesContentiousGraduation SpeechValedictorians
Author:Nick Kroll
Create image

“Faithiest resonated with me in many ways-not only because, like Chris, I am a gay former-Christian atheist who still thinks of my religious neighbors as fellow truth-seekers-but also because I deeply appreciated the book's nuanced approach to contentious issues. This is an important contribution to current debates, one which should be read not only for its valuable content but also for its exemplary tone: warm, engaging, optimistic, and humble.”

ThinkingWayShouldStillsImportantBookChristianReligiousIssuesGayApproachFellowsAtheistCurrentsHumbleValuableWarmNeighborDebateOptimisticFormerToneContributionEngagingAppreciatedSeekersChristian AtheistExemplaryContentiousImportant ContributionsTruth Seekers
Author:John Corvino
Create image

“From the day I took office, I've been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious; such an effort would be too contentious. I've been told that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for a while. For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?”

ShouldLongWould BeAmericaPoliticalWaitingChallengesSimpleEffortOfficeClaimsAmbitiousPolitical SystemsContentious
Author:Barack Obama
Create image

“Uses are always much broader than functions, and usually far less contentious. The word function carries overtones of purpose andpropriety, of concern with why something was developed rather than with how it has actually been found useful. The function of automobiles is to transport people and objects, but they are used for a variety of other purposes--as homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.”

PeopleUseHomeUsedPurposeFoundObjectsOfficeWeaponsConcernFunctionVarietyCarrieBedroomOffensiveAutomobileTransportContentiousHome OfficeJetty
Book:To Think: In Language, Learning and Education
Create image

“One of the good things is the relationship between director and editor used to be more contentious. Studios used to leave directors alone more during the post production process and now they're clamoring to get in. So, the director and the editor end up teaming up sort of against the studio to fight what they're doing and you lose the creative tension that you used to have between an editor and a director.”

EndsUsedFightingProcessLosesCreativeDirectorsGood ThingsProductionsStudiosUsed To BePostsTensionEditorsContentiousPost ProductionCreative TensionTeaming Up
Author:Michael Sucsy
Create image

“Disturbers are to be rebuked, the low spirited to be encouraged, the infirm to be supported, objectors confuted, the treacherous guarded against, the unskilled taught, the lazy aroused, the contentious restrained, the haughty repressed, the poor relieved, the oppressed liberated, the good approved, the evil borne with, and all are to be loved!”

EvilPoorTaughtLowsLazyOppressedLiberatedApprovedRelievedGuardedSpiritedRepressedTreacherousBe EncouragedHaughtyContentious
Author:Saint Augustine
Create image

“Senator [Ben] Sanders and I share some very big progressive goals. I've been fighting for universal healthcare for many years, and we're now on the path to achieving it. I don't want us to start over again. I think that would be a great mistake, to once again plunge our country into a contentious debate about whether we should have and what kind of system we should have for healthcare.”

ThinkingWantShouldYearsKindCountryBigsWould BeFightingGoalMistakePathShareAchieveShould HaveUniversalDebateOur CountryProgressiveHealthcareSenatorsWant UStarting OverPlungeGreat MistakesContentious
Author:Hillary Clinton
Create image

“I think that there are non-physical laws all right: genuine (if not strict) laws written in the language of biology, economics, and so on. But I don't regard that as a contentious issue. Even reductionists about chemistry will think that there are special chemical laws whose formulation makes essential use of chemical terminology.”

IfsThinkingUseLawLanguageIssuesWrittenSpecialEssentialsEconomicsRegardGenuineBiologyChemistryChemicalsStrictTerminologyContentiousStrict Laws
Author:David Papineau
Create image

“I gave the graduation speech at my high school. Not because I was valedictorian but because the grade voted for me to do it. And I gave a slightly contentious speech. I was a little critical of the administration. But for a long time it said on Wikipedia that I took my balls out and exposed myself to the crowd.”

LittlesLongSaidSchoolSpeechLong TimeHigh SchoolBallsCrowdsCriticalAdministrationGradesExposedWikipediaContentiousGraduation SpeechValedictorians
Author:Nick Kroll
Create image

“You can't assume if you do something contentious that people will be on your side. The moment violence enters the story, the story changes. Then the question is, "How do you face up to violence?" And then you have to have a no-compromise position. And this is quite simply a lesson we learn in the school playground.”

PeopleIfsMomentsStoriesSchoolFacesSidesViolencePositionLessonsAssumingCompromiseYour SidePlaygroundsNo CompromiseContentious
Author:Salman Rushdie
Create image

“Tolerance obviously requires a non-contentious manner of relating toward one another’s differences. But tolerance does not require abandoning one’s standards or one’s opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination.”

WayDoePoliticalChoicesDifferencesOpinionPolicyDiversityStandardsToleranceCommandExaminationOaksReactingPublic PolicyContentious
Author:Dallin H. Oaks
Create image

“It's only in the finer points that it gets complicated and contentious, the inability to realize that no matter what our religion or gender or race or geographic background, we all have about 98 percent in common with each other.... For whatever reason, we like to focus on the 2 percent that's different, and most of the conflict in the world comes from that.”

WorldDifferentMatterReasonRealizingCommonRaceFocusConflictPercentNo Matter WhatComplicatedGenderBackgroundsInabilityContentious
Book:Every Day
Create image

“This truth may be handled either sinfully or profitably; sinfully as when it is treated on only to satisfy curiosity, and to keep up a mere barren speculative dispute.... This point of election... is not to be agitated in a verbal and contentious way, but in a saving way, to make us tremble and to set us upon a more diligent and close striving with God in prayer, and all other duties.”

WayMayPrayerDutyElectionMereStriveCuriosityTreatedSavingDisputesBarrenDiligentContentious
Author:Anthony Burgess
Create image

“On dispersive ground, therefore, fight not. On facile ground, halt not. On contentious ground, attack not. On open ground, do not try to block the enemy's way. On the ground of intersecting highways, join hands with your allies. On serious ground, gather in plunder. In difficult ground, keep steadily on the march. On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem. On desperate ground, fight.”

WayTryingArtWarHandsFightingDifficultEnemyMilitarySeriousBlockDesperateMarchAlliesHighwaysResortsArt Of WarHaltPlunderStrategistStratagemContentious
Book:The Art of War (The Classic Lionel Giles Translation)
Create image

“I like playing on this team. We actually been doin' real good. Got a different mix here. Most important thing is you gotta keep pickin' up in paces. That's why we're playing contentious play. We got top names, guys can still hit in the majors, guys been out of the game hittin' the ball, shockin' it. Don't have no old, old guys. Not sayin' they don't get a good job done. Fact is, they've been vice versa. So that's incentive right there. It's been a plus.”

StillsImportantDifferentRealDonePlayFactsJobsGuyGamesNamesTeamMajorsBallsImportant ThingsVicesPlusPaceGood JobIncentivesVice VersaOld GuysContentious
Author:Mickey Rivers
Create image

“One of the most fruitless, irritating wastes in the world is arguing-the contentious, endless kind of arguing that is akin to quarreling, and causes feuding in families and among friends, and leaves resentful feeling in homes, in hearts, in businesses and professions, and in all kinds of gatherings in public and private places, and in all relationships of life-and with so little that it ever seems to settle!”

WorldHeartKindLittlesFeelingsHomeSeemsCausesWasteProfessionArguingEndlessAll KindsSettlingGatheringIrritatingContentionResentfulContentious
Author:Richard L. Evans
Create image

“...in the eyes of her oldest friends and colleagues and extended family, she wasn't a painfully thin seventy-five-year-old gray haired woman dying of cancer- she was a grade school class president, the young friend you gossiped with, a date or double date, someone to share a tent with in Darfur, a fellow election monitor in Bosnia, a mentor, a teacher you'd laughed within a classroom or a faculty lounge, or the board member you'd groaned with after a contentious meeting”

YearsEyeSchoolYoungPresidentClassFiveTeacherShareDyingMembersElectionFellowsMeetingsCancerBoardsFive YearsGradesFacultyGrayLaughedClassroomMentorColleaguesSeventiesTentsFive Year OldsGrades In SchoolBosniaExtended FamilyGray HairContentiousDarfurYoung FriendsBoard MembersOldest FriendsClass President
Author:Will Schwalbe
Create image