Controversies merely speculative are of small importance in themselves, however they may have sometimes heated a disputant, or provoked a faction

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.

American journalists go for safe stories. They don't like controversy. They don't like to say, 'I was a witness. I saw this. This is true. This is what happened." You have this constant business where journalists can never be the source; there has to be this anonymous diplomat.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way

The passionate controversies of one era are viewed as sterile preoccupations by another, for knowledge alters what we seek as well as what we find.

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.