Studs Terkel Quotes

Debate is so much better than denial.

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

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

Discussion in America means dissent.

Dialogue means debates and everyone's point of view.

I'd much rather have 15 people arguing about something than 15 people splitting into two camps, each side convinced it's right and not talking to the other.

There's always merit to having a debate.

I don't want to argue with you Mr. Speaker. I'm just trying to give you my thoughts.

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

We can calm down our argument a little so that we can learn what it is that we are actually arguing about.

Philosophy is a performance sport - you have to play it with somebody back and forth.

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

I have ideas, but those ideas could be wrong. The only way that you would change someone's mind is through dialogue, through productive discussion. If you're not going to have productive discussion, what are you going to do?

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

But I do think its necessary to have debates.

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

He who is silent must be agreed with, for what shall the wings of opposition thresh upon, without the winds of conversation to shoulder them.

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

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

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 will listen to any argument put to me.

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.

I must remind the right honorable gentleman that a monologue is not a decision.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance.

There are truths to be discovered, but they are complex and many-sided; the best way to get to them is by engaging contrary ideas in a manner approximating dialogue.