Public Debate Quotes

The organization of our press has truly been a success. Our law concerning the press is such that divergences of opinion between members of the government are no longer an occasion for public exhibitions, which are not the newspapers' business.

In a land where so many have a right to air their opinions and where so many interest are bound to collide and have to be reconciled, unanimity can hardly be expected. We were agreed on the evils but differed on the remedies, and amidst this contention of parties, the very zeal and energy of the best citizens became damaging to the public interest.

I get involved in lots of Twitter spats with lots of people when I think they're not being fair about the progress the NHS is making.

Whatever may be said about the power of the press, it is undeniable that it can set the entire public thinking and talking about any topic ...

We owe it to ourselves and to our policy makers to have a high standard of public debate about the future of our energy supplies.

We have a violence problem in America. And no one is having a debate about the violence problem. And I think this is a missed opportunity to have an honest and open conversation in this country about why these horrifying things are happening, not simply what they're using to carry this out, but why are people doing this to begin with?

Democracy is about criticism.

All of us try to persuade our fellow citizens to see our point of view and that is the way public opinion is created in a democracy. It seems to me, however, we might achieve our aim with a little less violent invective and blackening of the individual character, for on both sides motives are probably good. The real difference is in the methods that are advocate.

The president and the executive branch are always going to have greater latitude and greater authority when it comes to protecting America because sometimes you just have to respond quickly and not everything that is a danger can be publicized and be subject to open debate, but there have to be some guardrails.

The people did not elect you to debate the size of the crowd at your inaguaral.

Missing from much of the public debate is discussion of the simple fact that lurking behind every terroristic act is a specific political antecedent. That does not justify either the perpetrator or his political cause. Nonetheless, the fact is that almost all terrorist activity originates from some political conflict and is sustained by it as well.

It was precisely my love of the First Amendment that made me join sidewalk activists in 2010 to support an Islamic community center's right to open in Lower Manhattan.

I think you should be able to have a press conference without having reporters key in on certain divisive issues.

The presidential race should not be a battle of personalities.

Read the editorial page of your local paper. It introduces you to opinion and can be terrifically provocative and perhaps a great motivating force for you to get involved in your community, regardless of your political ideology.

I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing.

Often vastly more important, international agreements are not routinely published in draft form or publicly debated, and civil society organizations and ordinary citizens often learn of important global institutional design decisions only after they have already been finalized and adopted. The only reliable way to be kept informed and to exert timely influence is by lobbying and paying the politicians and their negotiators.

My experience of American politics is that people raise issues, and they get addressed in an effective but imperfect way. But that's sort of the American system: Mind the problem and worry it, and then we attack it with overwhelming power and put it away - and that's the end of that problem.

If human rights are supposed to have any meaning, then they have to be discussed openly.

Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is.

The method of democracy is to bring ... conflicts out into the open where their special claims can be seen and appraised, where they can be discussed and judged.

There are always issues on the front page that need to be explored.

It's certainly an interesting moment to try to talk about, 'cause you could make a great show about the police force right now, with all that's happening in the news and Ferguson and all of it.

Affirmitive action is extremely complex because it appears in many different forms.

People are always telling me to shut up about Chicago.