Charles Murray Quotes

I love disagreements. I love the democratic process. If I'm in a room where everybody agrees, I start to nod off.

I want people to have conversations, to have controversy because it creates dialogue and builds bridges.

Discussion in America means dissent.

Freedom rings where opinions clash.

If you don't like what someone has to say, argue with them.

If you're going to have an exchange of ideas, the only thing you can do is to meet people face-to-face in front of a crowd who may think differently than you do. I mean, that's what democracy is about, isn't it?

I like arguments.

I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field.

Debates are boring.

One can always debate questions back and forth.

And I think both the left and the right should celebrate people who have different opinions, and disagree with them, and argue with them, and differ with them, but don't just try to shut them up.

Contention is inseparable from creating knowledge. It is not contention we should try to avoid, but discourses that attempt to suppress contention.

As I say, I'm a discourse advocate. What form it comes is less important to me than the fact that there is discourse.

That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting.

I think of fans like a barbershop. I want that debate.

If you take a strong stance and have a clear opinion or statement on any subject online, you're going to polarize people. And without that polarity, there's no discussion. Discussion is what I want, which means that I'm fine with the consequences.

There's always merit to having a debate.

Writers should provoke disagreement.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

The more ideas there are in circulation, the more ideas there are for any individual to disagree with. More media always means more arguing.

It is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied.

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

I like to argue with the radio.

Criticism, any amount, we welcome it. Come, let's have a discussion - in Parliament, all the better.

I think it's important to have conversation about things instead of shutting things down.