Will Hurd Quotes

I realized there are no lobbyists for critical thinking, and I realized there are no lobbyists for bravery.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

One must dig deeply into opposing points of view in order to know whether your own position remains defensible. Iron sharpens iron.

One may criticize even what one reveres.

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

And I honor the man who is willing to sink Half his present repute for the freedom to think, And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak.

Somewhere in this we got into impugning people's character and motives if we didn't like their ideas. We gotta get back to just debating ideas.

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.

Debate is so much better than denial.

When blithe to argument I come, Though armed with facts, and merry, May Providence protect me from The fool as adversary, Whose mind to him a kingdom is Where reason lacks dominion, Who calls conviction prejudice And prejudice opinion.

Good people can disagree - all you want is honesty, because you know, if I disagree, I'm willing to debate you on that, and then let the public decide what's good policy and bad policy.

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

Fortunately for serious minds, a bias recognized is a bias sterilized.

My father believed, like Pericles, that a man's genius could be easily judged by the number of unenlightened fools set in phalanx against his ideas.

The power of real debate is in the language and intellectual honesty of the debaters, alongside the engagement of spectators.

As a writer, I am an intellectual. I believe in the ideals of the Enlightenment, I believe in the written word, in dialogue and in truth. I hate lies more than anything else. Most of the time I react by writing.

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

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

Of course there are always exceptions, but opinions are not to be feared.

What the nation's built on is discussion, contradiction and growth, and at the moment you can't discuss anything. If you do start to discuss it, you get criticized. If people hate us, you have to find out why and try to solve that problem.

I'm happy to have my own opinion and air it when I think it's necessary.

In my own case, the most inflammatory statements I have ever made are ones that I have written and remain willing to defend.

Over the course of time this gave us a deep respect for ideas, both our own and those of others, and an understanding that conflict through debate is a powerful means of revealing truth.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.