Controversial Quotes

1. "Christian writers, whether they like it or not, do not simply write for themselves; for good or ill, readers will see their work as reflecting Jesus Christ and his church. And if only for this reason - though there are other reasons - one must take great care when dealing with potentially controversial topics not to imagine one's every pronouncement preceded by 'Thus saith the Lord.' The law of love, on which 'all the law and the prophets' depend (Matt. 22:40), mandates charity toward one's opponents in argument."
Author: Alan Jacobs

2. "The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial."
Author: Ali Khamenei

3. "From this experience we have learned that in a big party it is important to have the necessary and often controversial discussions on policy issues such as the health system while in opposition."
Author: Angela Merkel

4. "The broad outlines of the Double Cross deception have been known since 1972, when Sir John Masterman, the former chairman of the double agent committee, controversially published his account of the operation in defiance of official secrecy."
Author: Ben Macintyre

5. "If we understand "rights" to be legal protection against harm, then many animals already do have rights, and the idea of animal rights is not terribly controversial."
Author: Cass R. Sunstein

6. "Just because you say something doesn't make it controversial, and it doesn't make you a bad person."
Author: Charles Barkley

7. "I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative."
Author: Christopher Darden

8. "[Medieval] Art was not just a static element in society, or even one which interacted with the various social groups. It was not simply something which was made to decorate or to instruct — or even to overawe and dominate. Rather, it was that and more. It was potentially controversial in ways both similar and dissimilar to its couterpart today. It was something which could by its force of attraction not only form the basis for the economy of a particular way of life, it could also come to change that way of life in ways counter to the original intent. Along with this and because of this, art carried a host of implications, both social and moral, which had to be justified. Indeed, it is from the two related and basic elements of justification and function — claim and reality — that Bernard approaches the question of art in the Apologia."
Author: Conrad Rudolph

9. "...There are issues worth advancing in images worth admiring; and the truth is never "plain," nor appearances ever "sincere." To try to make them so is to neutralize the primary, gorgeous eccentricity of imagery in Western culture since the Reformation: the fact that it cannot be trusted, that imagery is always presumed to be proposing something contestable and controversial. This is the sheer, ebullient, slithering, dangerous fun of it. No image is presumed inviolable in our dance hall of visual politics, and all images are potentially powerful."
Author: Dave Hickey

10. "I like the idea that my audience doesn't see what I do as controversial."
Author: Dave Sim

11. "Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one – more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-three More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover."
Author: Douglas Adams

12. "I know the war in Iraq is controversial in the States, but for us in the Middle East it has made a great and significant impact."
Author: Ehud Olmert

13. "I'm constantly changing, I'm constantly growing. I think I'm a little controversial... I just try and keep some mystery, so hopefully people can't really put their finger on it."
Author: Evan Rachel Wood

14. "I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial."
Author: Flannery O'Connor

15. "Ask two people to tell you anything, you'll get two versions. Even easy things like directions, let alone important or semi-controversial topics like why a fight started or what a person was generally like. If you don't know something for yourself, you just can't be sure."
Author: Gabrielle Zevin

16. "I handed them a script and they turned it down. It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, 'Who is God?' The Enterprise meets God in space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way, says, 'If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being."
Author: Gene Roddenberry

17. "Despite my involvement in difficult and sometimes controversial questions I have received consistent support from the people of Ashfield. They have recognised that it is necessary to take difficult decisions, that newspapers do not always report fairly or accurately."
Author: Geoff Hoon

18. "They said it was against the rules to take sides on a controversial issue. I said, 'I wish you had told me that during World War II, when I took sides against Hitler.'"
Author: Howard K. Smith

19. "I would just like my children to be able to eat fish when they grow up. Now, I don't think there's anything controversial about that."
Author: James Murdoch

20. "During my six years with them Dr Garnet Davey (subsequently Research Director) constantly supported me and, I have no doubt, fought many battles on my behalf to keep the initially controversial programme going."
Author: James W. Black

21. "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."
Author: Jane Smiley

22. "I'll never tell a lie. I'll never make a misleading statement. I'll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I'll never avoid a controversial issue."
Author: Jimmy Carter

23. "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."
Author: John F. Kennedy

24. "I think it is very difficult today to have a reasoned public discourse on any controversial subject. Certainly, election years present a complicating factor."
Author: John Poindexter

25. "If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature."
Author: Julian Assange

26. "As you know, the fossil record includes not only the ancestors of crocodiles and whales, but also the ancestors of human beings. And this, of course, is why evolution remains controversial."
Author: Kenneth R. Miller

27. "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."
Author: Kerry Patterson

28. "'Requiem' has been controversial because people don't feel I gave it closure."
Author: Lauren Oliver

29. "The outside of the building was covered with faded poster advertising what was sold, and by the eerie light of the half-moon, the Baudelaires could see that fresh limes, plastic knives, canned meat, white envelopes, mango-flavored candy, red wine, leather wallets, fashion magazines, goldfish bowls, sleeping bags, roasted figs, cardboard boxes, controversial vitamins, and many other things were available inside the store. Nowhere on the building, however, was there a poster advertising help, which is really what the Baudelaires needed."
Author: Lemony Snicket

30. "A few more Rules may fitly be given here, for correspondence that has unfortunately become controversial.One is, don't repeat yourself. When once you have said your say, fully and clearly, on a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that subject: to repeat your arguments, all over again, will simply lead to his doing the same; and so you will go on, like a Circulating Decimal. Did you ever know a Circulating Decimal come to an end?"
Author: Lewis Carroll

31. "The way we consume information leads us to think less and less about more and more. We spend much of our time fixated on secondary questions (usually related to controversial and sensational issues) and very little time exploring the primary questions about our brief stay here on earth."
Author: Matthew Kelly

32. "Only black people can use controversial racial terms such as "Negro."
Author: Matthew Quick

33. "I really love Scrabble. I played it with my mother growing up. We took it everywhere with us. We didn't know then about the two letter words. Who knew that AA, or more controversially, ZA, or QI were words? We were a games family generally."
Author: Meg Wolitzer

34. "Today's generation didn't want to watch ancient actors reciting the same tired lines. They wanted to see themselves reflected onscreen –rude, raw, entitled. These kids needed to believe that they themselves were only one daring, controversial act away from being up on that screen themselves."
Author: Melissa Jo Peltier

35. "I just have my characters say my controversial opinions and then hide behind them."
Author: Mindy Kaling

36. "I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive."
Author: Nora Ephron

37. "If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything."
Author: Richard M. Nixon

38. "I'm always told that what I say is controversial. Why is it controversial? Because I speak from a tradition that has now fallen out of favor with the dominant media in this country. And so when I say things like marriage should be between one man and one woman, I'm called a bigot."
Author: Rick Santorum

39. "When someone sets out to be controversial or provocative or shocking as an end in itself, I don't think that's a noble goal."
Author: Rob Bell

40. "Thirty years ago, in 1976, the notion of organized activity to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was an extremely controversial one."
Author: Robert Brady

41. "I was very willing to take on controversial roles that people didn't really want to look at."
Author: Rosie Perez

42. "I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself."
Author: Shakira

43. "If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention."
Author: Simon Cowell

44. "The principals are quite simple. We can love people who treat us well. We cannot love people who treat us badly because, treating someone badly is not a virtue and we can only love virtue. I don't think that's controversial. I mean, there is no marriage therapist that I can imagine in the world who would say to a woman being beaten, humiliated, verbally abused, or completely ignored by her husband, "You just need to love him more. You need to work at making him happier." That would be sadistic in the extreme to say to someone. So, in the same way I say, if anyone, I don't care if they are your priest, god, father, mother, or your Siamese twin cousin coming out of your elbow or ass. I don't care. If someone is treating you badly, that is not good for you. The solution is not you being so great that you both become better. That's not a realistic solution."
Author: Stefan Molyneux

45. "Today you are thirteen weeks old and already controversial. You should know that the mention of the name Pablo is alarming to a very few, highly insignificant people. From this palsied paction there is occasionally the slightest pause, and then, 'Oh, really. Pablo.' Then with a small, self-depreciating chuckle, they might tilt their heads playfully and say something like 'Aren't you afraid people will think he's Mexican?'... I find it amusing when they balk at Pablo, as though we were naming you Jesus H. Christ and jamming our nails into your hands. They seem to feel your name is up for general discussion, like naming a local bridge or a stray cat.Hmmm. Mr. Whiskers? I don't like Mr. Whiskers. I like the name Blackie.'Aren't you afraid people will think he's black?"
Author: Suzanne Finnamore

46. "PolyphiloprogenitiveThe sapient sutlers of the LordDrift across the window-panes.In the beginning was the Word.In the beginning was the Word.Superfetation of to en,And at the mensual turn of timeProduced enervate Origen.A painter of the Umbrian schoolDesigned upon a gesso groundThe nimbus of the Baptized God.The wilderness is cracked and brownedBut through the water pale and thinStill shine the unoffending feetAnd there above the painter setThe Father and the Paraclete.. . . . . .The sable presbyters approachThe avenue of penitence;The young are red and pustularClutching piaculative pence.Under the penitential gatesSustained by staring SeraphimWhere the souls of the devoutBurn invisible and dim.Along the garden-wall the beesWith hairy bellies pass betweenThe staminate and pistilate,Blest office of the epicene.Sweeney shifts from ham to hamStirring the water in his bath.The masters of the subtle schoolsAre controversial, polymath."
Author: T.S. Eliot

47. "The row ostensibly has to do with tables versus CSS, a controversial issue of the time, which has always, given its level of passion, struck Maxine as somehow religious. She imagines it will be difficult, no matter which side prevails, to appreciate, ten years from now, the all-consuming nature of the dispute."
Author: Thomas Pynchon

48. "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."
Author: Tiffini Johnson

49. "I have a controversial opinion about evil, because I don't believe evil exists. I believe that actions are dark and destructive but I don't believe evil is a thing. I believe it's a by-product of man's fear and desperation."
Author: Victor Salva

50. "Custard is controversial: what makes it a custard, how best to cook it and, crucially, is it to be eaten or put in a pie and thrown?"
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi

Controversial Quotes Pictures