Controversial Quotes

#1. Before science, before the eighteenth century, religion answered the questions, and so in the nineteenth century for instance there was a real jostling between science and religion over the truth and this is why Darwin was so controversial.

Nell Irvin Painter

#2. The Republican leadership thinks the best way to avoid losing elections is to let the Democrats win every controversial issue.

Rush Limbaugh

#3. I'm not always happy when Hollywood does remakes of films, but that's usually, when they have a very, very, very good film and they take away anything controversial from it and make flatter.

Stellan Skarsgard

#4. 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.

Robert Brady

#5. 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.

Victor Salva

#6. I'm a controversial guy.

Newt Gingrich

#7. 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.

Ehud Olmert

#8. 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.

Matthew Kelly

#9. I try not to get political, I don't want to get religious, I don't want to get controversial, I just want to have a show that relates to everybody.

Gabriel Iglesias

#10. I still have this image: I can't be controversial, I can't say things.

Chris Evert

#11. As an artist, I try and be controversial, and I have been a bit offensive at times. I have a view on the burka, and I'm sure a few of the Muslim girls and their families would have a view of me on stage in next to nothing!

Jessie J.

#12. It takes some courage to write fiction about politically controversial topics. The dread is you'll be labeled a political writer.

Barbara Kingsolver

#13. Sadly, when pastors choose to neglect controversial issues, they do great damage to the spiritual growth of their congregates. We have generations of young people in our churches who simply believe what the world believes on social and moral issues, and they don't think biblically on these matters.

Ken Ham

#14. I am conscious of the fact that the subject of hell is not a very pleasant one. It is very unpopular, controversial, and misunderstood ... As a minister I must deal with it. I cannot ignore it.

Billy Graham

#15. 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.

James Murdoch

#16. I'm a storyline. I'm the chosen one for negative stories and controversial things. If I worried about it all, I would go insane.

Ndamukong Suh

#17. Instead of school busing and prayer in schools, which are both controversial, why not a joint solution? Prayer in buses. Just drive these kids around all day and let them pray their fuckn' empty little heads off.

George Carlin

#18. In Germany, you have a huge official memorial to the murdered Jews and then you have this artist who's been putting these stumbling blocks, these brass cobblestones, outside the houses Jews were taken away from. It's somewhat controversial and has met some resistance.

Amy Waldman

#19. 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

#20. I really feel that artists or musicians are controversial people. Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity. If people are not doing that, they're not artists - they're artisans.

Yoko Ono

#21. Important decisions are risky. They should be controversial. Acclamation means that nobody has done the homework.

Peter Drucker

#22. Science alone cannot justify the pro-life position, thought it can give us the facts we need to draw moral conclusions on a host of controversial issues, including abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and cloning.

Scott Klusendorf

#23. We shouldn't have to be faithful loyalists of the powerful to feel safe from state surveillance. Nor should the price of immunity be refraining from controversial or provocative dissent.

Glenn Greenwald

#24. On any given vote, on any given day, a smart senator who has taken a bold or controversial position can reach far more media outlets between the elevator and the Senate chamber than he or she could garner in a full press conference back home.

Jim Webb

#25. 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.

Rob Bell

#26. Now that I exist in the mainstream majority, I'm not really so controversial any more, am I? Not really news.

Michael Moore

#27. Once upon a time, there was a safe, private place to take your controversial stand for Jesus. No more. If you are going to stand, you will be shot at - either figuratively or literally.

John Piper

#28. Senator Helms might very well do that. I would point out to him that we in the art world are not necessarily in the business of making controversial art.

Jane Alexander

#29. I have never written out of a desire to be controversial.

Meg Rosoff

#30. It would be normal for anybody running a high-profile, politically controversial operation in China to anticipate worst-case scenario, and to do everything possible to guard against them.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#31. My most famous drama in England is quite controversial. It's something called Men Only, and it's rather a shocking exploration of male sexuality.

Peter Webber

#32. I don't understand why it's controversial for law-abiding citizens protecting themselves under the Second Amendment.

Jerry Falwell Jr.

#33. As black people we were out to further our equality. I don't pay attention to the controversial connotations put on by media and the undermining labels they place on us. We pay attention to what our community situation is and what we need.

Chuck D

#34. There are usually half a dozen right answers to what needs to be
done. Yet, unless a person makes the risky and controversial choice of only one, he will achieve nothing.

Peter Drucker

#35. The very controversial National Identification Act of 1991, requiring all United States citizens to carry identification, has greatly enhanced the ability of law enforcement officers to identify criminals and terrorists.

Richard Lamm

#36. Comprehensive, judicious, evenhanded, original. An Unfinished Life has the sober judgment and nuanced accuracy that make it ring true in all the controversial and tricky parts.

Jack Newfield

#37. It was fucking weird. They had gone from a sickening, "in love" couple doing a duet to the complete opposite in the span of two songs. Who knew the Beatles were still so controversial.

Karina Halle

#38. Many times I heard Imam Ahmad saying (when asked to give his opinion) on controversial scholarly issues 'I do not know.'

Abu Dawood

#39. Decentralisation is controversial - but that's fine. We should be fearless about having a debate.

Charles Kennedy

#40. What makes me vulnerable is speaking up about topics that may be controversial to others.

Gabrielle Bernstein

#41. Just because someone is holding a gun doesn't make an image controversial. It all depends on where you put the gun, who is holding it.

Carine Roitfeld

#42. I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.

Sherman Alexie

#43. Thinking of the universe as a computer is controversial.

Seth Lloyd

#44. In the largest sense, every work of art is protest ... A lullaby is a propaganda song and any three-year-old knows it ... A hymn is a controversial song - sing one in the wrong church: you'll find out ...

Pete Seeger

#45. There isn't much question that the person who obtained the WikiLeaks cables from a classified U.S. government network broke U.S. law and should expect to face the consequences. The legal rights of a website that publishes material acquired from that person, however, are much more controversial.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#46. Obviously this prison has been controversial ever since the first detainees arrived in Guantanamo more than 14 years ago.

Audie Cornish

#47. The entire island knows our father, Fred Hemmings, Jr. - kids, adults, surfers, the governor, grocery clerks, gang members who call our house at night and threaten to kill us as soon as they get out of jail. Fred was a world-champion surfer and is now a well-known, controversial politician.

Kaui Hart Hemmings

#48. If everyone thinks you're doing the right thing, then everyone would be doing it. Have a controversial strategy.

Scott McNealy

#49. Controversial' as we all know, is often a euphemism for 'interesting and intelligent.

Kevin Smith

#50. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life.

John Gresham Machen

#51. When the policy is controversial, you have to go out and defend it.

Elliott Abrams

#52. Whenever I feel bad, I go to the library and read controversial periodicals. Though I do not know whether I am a liberal or a conservative, I am nevertheless enlivened by the hatred which one bears the other. In fact, this hatred strikes me as one of the few signs of life remaining in the world.

Walker Percy

#53. It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

Noam Chomsky

#54. I don't think it's that controversial. I'm really in favor of legalizing marijuana. I thought people would be more offended by [this series] than they are. I'm surprised they weren't.

Mary-Louise Parker

#55. 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.

Evan Rachel Wood

#56. If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.

Criss Jami

#57. I can unite the people of Israel, so I won't speak about controversial issues, which divide the people.

Dan Shechtman

#58. Researchers discovered that people who have just consumed caffeinated drinks were more likely to be swayed by arguments about various controversial topics.55 In short, good evidence that there really is no such thing as a free lunch or an innocent cup of coffee.

Richard Wiseman

#59. Immigration reforms are always controversial. Our Congress was created to muster political will to answer such challenges. Today we didn't, but tomorrow we will. I yield the floor.

Edward Kennedy

#60. I am really the most controversial artist in the world.

Thomas Kinkade

#61. I am of mixed minds about the issue of privacy. On one hand, I understand that information is power, and power is, well, power, so keeping your private information to yourself is essential - especially if you are a controversial figure, a celebrity, or a dissident.

Susan Orlean

#62. The U.S. must differentiate between controversial assertions of power, like those in the South China Sea, and fair reflections of China's growing contribution to the world, such as the new banks.

Evan Osnos

#63. It was very controversial actually, because basically, Lion In The Grass was also a course that you were receiving college credit for. So it was like he was taking a class, but then the class which also has a teacher and everything, was competing with bands that weren't in classes.

Chris Baio

#64. I've always been called "controversial." I think if I were not controversial I wouldn't be doing my job.

Andrew Weil

#65. 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

#66. What matters is not what you photograph, but why and how you photograph it. Even the most controversial subject, if depicted by a sensitive photographer with honesty, sympathy, and understanding, can be transformed into an emotionally rewarding experience.

Andreas Feininger

#67. Of all the subjects I have photographed, the most controversial and the one that has moved me the most has to be the prostitutes who are getting on in years. They are true survivors.

Maya Goded

#68. I think it is very difficult today to have a reasoned public discourse on any controversial subject. Certainly, election years present a complicating factor.

John Poindexter

#69. Controversial proposals, once accepted, soon become hallowed.

Dean Acheson

#70. I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative.

Christopher Darden

#71. Even those who don't believe in climate change believe we should develop renewable energy. Americans get it: it's time. This is not controversial. It's actually right in the wheelhouse of American business.

Marshall Herskovitz

#72. In a forum online I saw a thread about favourite smells. There was the usual stuff about fresh cut grass, babies, and whatever, but slowly a controversial contingent arose which named the smell of their own balls as their favourite aroma.

Drew Nellins Smith

#73. I remember when the Bic pen was controversial. They came from France. They were cheap, and when one was out of ink, you threw it away; you didn't dip it into more ink.

Patti Smith

#74. I can imagine Iceland becoming a good place to run a controversial Web site. But ... Iceland may find itself forced to defend controversial speech.

Ethan Zuckerman

#75. I think if I'm controversial it's not because I set out to be. It's because I've never felt comfortable being part of someone else's mainstream community.

Tony Judt

#76. Controversial issues are always more interesting but I don't create material about a subject I have opinion on just because it's controversial. The most fun is having a point of view that the audience is generally against and presenting an argument that challenges their thinking.

Doug Stanhope

#77. If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention.

Simon Cowell

#78. One of the lessons from Sept. 11 is that America requires a long-term presence in those parts of the world that endanger us. This notion has become controversial, but frankly, the need could not be clearer.

Rudy Giuliani

#79. How controversial is for one to deny that men aren't from space while the Earth itself is in space?

Marcus L. Lukusa

#80. When I write I'll sometimes say things which are somewhat controversial - not because I'm seeking out controversy for its own sake, but if I don't have anything to say which is different, why am I bothering to write stuff down in the first place?

Paul Bloom

#81. Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned in New York this week, where he stepped up his controversial goal of helping children ... It's all summed up in his campaign slogan, 'Arnold Schwarzenegger: Cutting violence in half with a laser-guided chain gun across a charred landscape - for the children.'

Jon Stewart

#82. I have this idiot name tag which says 'controversial.'

Maurice Sendak

#83. The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.

Donald Trump

#84. 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

#85. Controversial disputes are a part of democratic culture.

Angela Merkel

#86. [A formula for answering controversial letters
without even reading the letters:] Dear Sir (or Madame): You may be right.

H.L. Mencken

#87. Early British pop was helped tremendously by the writing of Bob Dylan who had proved you could write about political and quite controversial subjects. Certainly what we did followed on from what was happening with the angry young men in the theatre.

Pete Townshend

#88. Exposing any subject that is unpleasant or controversial means risking judgment and making some people feel uncomfortable.

Carre Otis

#89. I like to take chances. The actors I admire are the ones who aren't afraid to make themselves nasty, bad or even goofy. I've never shied away from controversial characters.

Matt Dillon

#90. The issue of human rights is one of the most fundamental human issues and also one of the most sensitive and controversial.

Ali Khamenei

#91. Judge Roberts' civil rights record and views remained the most controversial and unexplained part of his record when the Judiciary Committee hearing concluded, just as his civil rights record and views had been the most controversial part of his record when the hearing began.

Mel Watt

#92. It amazes me that talking about traditional values is controversial, but it seems to be.

Laura Schlessinger

#93. What we ought not do is play politics with those who've been afflicted by disasters. This should not be controversial. Stop playing politics, do the right thing for the country and let's make sure we're not making politics with disaster relief.

David Plouffe

#94. Scientists generally are really chicken about getting involved in some kind of dispute. As a broadcaster, I find it very difficult to urge them, if it is a controversial subject. They don't want to have science being portrayed badly.

David Suzuki

#95. I don't get controversial, I don't get political and I don't tell you what to do with your life. I just go out there and tell some stories, and people can relate.

Gabriel Iglesias

#96. I know that I'm freer as a hip-hopper than as an executive. Even as a black man, I enjoy more freedom as a hip-hopper than as a black man. That, s controversial to say, but it's the truth.

KRS-One

#97. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.

John F. Kennedy

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

Abhishek Ratna

#99. The 1930s birthed two great agrarian novels: 'Gone with the Wind' from the viewpoint of the ruling class, 'The Grapes of Wrath' for the underclass. And both were turned into movies that dared to be true to the books' controversial themes.

Richard Corliss

#100. 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.

Shakira