“If then the question is put to me whether I would rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.”— Thomas Henry Huxley
“And yet, will we ever come to an end of discussion and talk if we think we must always reply to replies? For replies come from those who either cannot understand what is said to them, or are so stubborn and contentious that they refuse to give in even if they do understand.”— Augustine of Hippo
“Trouble with a long journey like this,’ continued the Captain, ‘is that you end up just talking to yourself a lot, which gets terribly boring because half the time you know what you’re going to say next.”— Douglas Adams
“I think there’s a difference between (a) offending people for its own sake, which I don’t necessarily want to do, because some people are good and decent and it would be unkind to upset them simply to indulge my own self-importance, and (b) challenging their prejudices, their preconceptions, or their comfortable assumptions. I’m very happy to do that. But we need to be on our guard when people say they’re offended. No one actually has the right to go through life without being offended. Some people think they can say “such-and-such offends me” and that will stop the “offensive” words or behaviour and force the “offender” to apologise. I’m very much against that tactic. No one should be able to shut down discussion by making their feelings more important than the search for truth. If such people are offended, they should put up with it.”— Philip Pullman