Controversial Ideas Quotes & Sayings

People who are skilled at dialogue do their best to make it safe for everyone to add their meaning to the shared pool
even ideas that at first glance appear controversial, wrong, or at odds with their own beliefs. Now, obviously they don't agree with every idea; they simply do their best to ensure that all ideas find their way into the open. — Kerry Patterson

In one sphere above all others, Anne Boleyn still had the power to influence him, and that was in the case of church reform. Anne was a passionate and sincere evangelical, the owner of a library of controversial reformist literature, and she was sympathetic to radical and even Lutheran ideas. — Alison Weir

Many a time, we let go of some really good ideas just because we feel they are too controversial. — Abhishek Ratna

A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes- and it will come- may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system. — Jane Smiley

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all - except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty. — John F. Kennedy

The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period. — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

It's weird, because the ideas in my songs aren't controversial to me. I feel like I should be able to sing about anything. — Kacey Musgraves

Let me open my heart so that everyone can love.
Let me love so that everyone can open their hearts. — Debasish Mridha

If my phrases shock the reader, that only shows it is high time he or she was shocked. — H.G.Wells

I've always been controversial because I offer new ideas. For me to be controversial, I think this is positive. — Avigdor Lieberman

This influential, yet controversial idea requires that the mixture of species on Earth at any moment acts as a collective organism that continuously (yet unwittingly) tunes Earth's atmospheric composition and climate to promote the presence of life ... But I'd bet there are some dead Martians and Venusians who advanced the same theory about their own planets a billion years ago. — Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Today, energy prices are at historic highs. Some analysts estimate that energy price shocks this year could cost American consumers more than $40 billion. Speaking very frankly, we cannot afford this kind of expense. — Jeff Bingaman

This gathered worship, as Quakers call it, is not only absence of noise. Gathered worship springs from the reverent, silent expectation that God will come among the people. The silence deepens as we feel ourselves drawn beautifully to God and each other. Our hearts and souls burst with thanksgiving-a thanksgiving best expressed by silence. Silence growing from awe is the natural human response to hints of the Divine. — J. Brent Bill

We can't go on forever with 11 million people living in this country in the shadows in an illegal status. We cannot forever have children who were born here - who were brought here by their parents when they were small children to live in the shadows, as well ... What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new appreciation on both sides of the aisle, maybe more importantly on the Republican side, that we need to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill. — John McCain

Make a start, even if you have a controversial idea! — Abhishek Ratna

all six of them a license." "That — Lawrence Block

I am really interested in who owns ideas of religion. What if I say I'm a libertarian, socialist, Occupy-supporting, anti-war, Christian? Is that a controversial idea? I don't see anything really in the original semiotics of Christianity, in the specific parable of the radical socialist Jew from Galilee who becomes the hero figure in the Homeric-word-of-mouth-gossip-novel that becomes the Bible that should make that a paradox. — Robert Montgomery

The best idea creators know: To generate a successful idea, you need to give the subconscious full freedom and generate many ideas, no matter how crazy, controversial or unrealistic. However, to be able to generate them you need to give your brain a direction: define an idea quota, deadline, resources and most importantly describe a task as specifically as possible. — Andrii Sedniev

The stupidest man I ever met had a favourite saying. It was: 'What do you think I am, stupid, or something? — Idries Shah

The resistance is the voice in your head telling you to use bullets in your PowerPoint slides ... It's the voice that tells you to leave controversial ideas out of the paper you're writing, because the teacher won't like them. The resistance pushes relentlessly for you to fit in. — Seth Godin

The only reason I don't like playing in the World Series is I can't watch myself play. — Reggie Jackson

The truth is that American universities are among the safest and most coddled environments ever devised by man. The idea that one should attend college to be protected from ideas one might find controversial or offensive could only occur to someone who had jettisoned any hope of acquiring an education. — Roger Kimball

As useful as websites and journals are, there's real value in books, too. — Jamais Cascio

You better not turn out to be an asshole," she says quietly.
"And you better be done with that guy in Italy," I reply. — Colleen Hoover

Books whose topics I thoroughy depsise are accapteble because they often force the reader to think and to examine his own beliefs. In an age where most people are either blindly obedient or radical, exposing oneself to the ideas contained in even the most controversial of books is a good thing. — Tiffini Johnson

You can't have a university without having free speech, even though at times it makes us terribly uncomfortable. If students are not going to hear controversial ideas on college campuses, they're not going to hear them in America. I believe it's part of their education. — Donna Shalala

All ideas having even the slightest redeeming social importance - unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, even ideas hateful to the prevailing climate of opinion, have the full protection of the guarantees [of the First Amendment]. — William J. Brennan

Above all, do not loose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. — Soren Kierkegaard

People who listen to my records expect the ballads from me. The rock 'n roll is on there because it's another mode of expression. — Dan Fogelberg