«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.»

«It is important, of course, that controversies be settled right, but there are many civil questions which arise between individuals in which it is not so important the controversy be settled one way or another as that it be settled. Of course a settlement of a controversy on a fundamentally wrong principle of law is greatly to be deplored, but there must of necessity be many rules governing the relations between members of the same society that are more important in that their establishment creates a known rule of action than that they proceed on one principle or another. Delay works always for the man with the longest purse.»

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

«It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.»

«Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because they contend not about matter of fact, nor can determine their controversies by any certain witnesses, nor judges. But as long as they go towards peace, that is Truth, it is no matter which way.»

«Newspaper correspondents with an army, as a rule, are mischievous. They are the world's gossips, pick up and retail the camp scandal, and gradually drift to the headquarters of some general, who finds it easier to make reputation at home than with his own corps or division. They are also tempted to prophesy events and state facts which, to an enemy, reveal a purpose in time to guard against it. Moreover, they are always bound to see facts colored by the partisan or political character of their own patrons, and thus bring army officers into the political controversies of the day, which are always mischievous and wrong. Yet, so greedy are the people at large for war news, that it is doubtful whether any army commander can exclude all reporters, without bringing down on himself a clamor that may imperil his own safety. Time and moderation must bring a just solution to this modern difficulty.»

«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.»

«We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.»

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