Dudley Field Malone Quotes

I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

I'm a big believer in debate and difference of opinion.

I am something of a contrarian, I suppose. I feel less comfortable when everybody agrees with me. I say, 'I better reexamine my position!' I probably believe that the worst opinions in my court have been unanimous. Because there's nobody on the other side pointing out all the flaws.

I like disagreement because it forces both sides to question their own opinions and why they feel that way.

And I've always said, 'If two people think the same thing about everything, one of them isn't necessary.' We need to be able to understand that if we're going to make real progress.

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

I like people with their own opinions, and I like people who argue with me. It's very exhausting to be in a room full of people who just nod and smile.

It is not undemocratic to express one's difference of opinion.

You can't have 'yes' people around you.

I think it's interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me all the time.

I enjoy being around people who disagree with me; and I enjoy being in non-political contexts and activities.

I want someone who can respectfully challenge me. I know what I believe, so there's no point in my taking on a relationship with someone who thinks like me or laughs at what I laugh at. I enjoy being with someone who can offer me the opposite.

By the very nature of his art, which depends on invention and innovation, a story teller must depart from the beaten track and, having done so, occasionally startle and disagree with some of his associates. Healthy disagreement we must have.

We don't necessarily always agree, but hopefully we make each other think, and that's what matters.

Read a lot - poems, prose, stories, newspapers, anything. Read books and poems that you think you will like and some that you think might not be for you. You might be surprised.

I've learned that I have to be happy with creating discussion and debate and that I shouldn't be trying to write a book that appeals to the consensus.

It is nice to be around people who think differently than you. They challenge your ideas and keep you from being complacent.

Writers should provoke disagreement.

Disagreements are one of the fundamental positive aspects of science.

People learn the most about themselves by confronting those with whom they deeply disagree..

Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

Three Spaniards, four opinions.

If we learn from those only, of whose lives and opinions we altogether approve, we shall have to turn from many of the highest and profoundest minds.

I don’t expect anyone to just sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

I think it's important to not just speak to like-minded people.