Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.
Michael Crichton in Caltech Michelin Lecture (17 January 2003)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
quote by Barbara Ehrenreich
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refuge of scoundrels
quote by William Samuel Johnson
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Religion is all-too-often a refuge for scoundrels.
quote by Neal Boortz
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Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine that violence never settles anything I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler would referee. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forgot this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and there freedoms.
quote by Robert Heinlein
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There's a bit of debate about that; some say it was really Matthew, but the popular consensus is that Mark was the first one, so that's why I did that one first. And I was planning on doing all four.
quote by Chester Brown
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There is zero debate about whether the world is getting warmer. That is a fact, a measured fact. There is some debate, although not much anymore, about what's causing the world to get warmer. And the consensus, by far is that it's us.
quote by Peter Barnes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Stressed To Their Mental Limits
No matter what the showing of proof may be,
There are still many believing...
They live a way of life envied by others.
But very few seem envious of those,
Living day to day on leases and loans...
While being indebted to creditors.
Even those teased and ridiculed,
For having nothing to impress...
Sleep peacefully and appear to be rested,
Than those claiming to have everything...
Yet appear and seem to be medicated,
To avoid being stressed to their mental limits.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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But to be the Vicar of Christ, to claim to exercise his prerogatives on earth, does involve a claim to his attributes, and therefore our opposition to Popery is opposition to a man claiming to be God.
quote by Charles Hodge
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The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
quote by H.L. Mencken
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A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The key to any successful plan is buy-in from the public, and what this process has demonstrated is the importance of including citizens in formulating a consensus plan that preserves our beautiful refuge.
I come to urge my party to be open to debate and discussion; to move away from a lock-step litmus test which advocates abortion on demand in an effort to reach a broader national consensus.
quote by Robert Casey
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I want to buy them, because historically these have been great engines of enrichment for the middle class, 'historically' meaning now for a good ten years.
quote by Jim Cramer
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Number Debate
Once pi and i had a debate
About which is better
A square root of minus one
Or being a Greek letter.
'Be rational, ' said i to pi,
'You make things complicated-
No matter how they measure you,
You always come truncated.'
Said pi to i: 'So what, my friend,
It's really no big deal-
I'm transcendental unlike you,
And you aren't even real.'
'But if you want to be exact,
Then you come nowhere near
To finding areas of disks
Or a volume of a sphere'.
Said i to pi: 'It may be so,
But you forgot to mention
That you're a point on a line,
And I have two dimensions.'
'For if you want nth roots of one,
Therein is my appeal-
I'll find all roots of one for you-
Imaginary and real.'
'And I can add and multiply
All points in a plane,
For I'm more than decimals
By real line constrained.'
While they continued to debate,
Infinity appeared,
Saying to both pi and i:
'You both are nowhere near.'
'You both are finite, real or not,
But I'd take a bet
That none of you can match the size
Of countable sets.'
So it was settled-pi and i
Were finally set free,
For both found that they're too small
To match infinity.
March 26,2008
poem by Alexander Shaumyan
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Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus which is the business of politics. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.
quote by Timothy R. Minnich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Morning Refuge Prayer
i take refuge in the Buddha
who shows us the path.
i take refuge in the Dharma
that teaches us to walk in compassion.
i take refuge in the Sangha
the family of living beings working together for peace.
i take refuge in Jesus
in the way that He lived and died.
in the Kingdom of Heaven within us
that heals the sick and feeds the hungry.
i take refuge in the Tao
in the uncarved block.
in water flowing over rocks
finding its own way.
i take refuge in the Great Spirit
in the embrace of Mother Earth.
i take refuge in the wind and rain
in the thunder and lightning,
in the stillness of night.
i take refuge in the howl of the wolf,
in the eyes of small children.
in the truth that breaks down the wall
between living and existing, between sorrow and joy.
poem by Eric Cockrell
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In this context, social consensus, and institutions that embody this consensus, must be made effective in order for democratization not to be abused as a provisional instrument to establish an anti-democratic regime.
quote by Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Don't You Be Claiming It
Don't you be claiming it...
If it's gonna make you moan.
Don't you be claiming it...
If it's not yours to own.
Don't name or label it...
You just leave it there all alone,
To be...
Somebody else's boo-hoo to grief.
Don't be the claimer of it...
If it's gonna ride your back.
Don't claim a shame of it...
You just leave it where it's at.
Don't play a game of it...
If it gets you heated steaming mad.
Just leave it,
To be...
The one done with that!
Just leave it,
To be...
The one done with that!
Don't feel defeated,
To be...
The one done with that!
And if it gets you heated....
Steaming lava out your back crack,
Leave it...
To be,
The one done with that!
Just leave it,
To be...
The one done with that!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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But in every matter the consensus of opinion among all nations is to be regarded as the law of nature.
Cicero in Tusculan Disputations
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Nothing ever gets settled in this town. a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me. And so that's the atmosphere in which you administer.
quote by George P. Shultz
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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