1.
It's better to be controversial for the right reasons, than to be popular for the wrong reasons.
Shimon Peres
It's preferable to be provocative for the correct causes, than to be admired for the wrong justifications.
2.
I don't see how you can write anything of value if you don't offend someone.
Marvin Harris
3.
I've never tried to be controversial. The truth is controversial enough.
Keith Green
4.
If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature.
Julian Assange
5.
I always put in one controversial item. It makes people talk.
Dorothy Draper
7.
I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.
Steven Morrissey
8.
It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.
Noam Chomsky
9.
If everyone thinks you're doing the right thing, then everyone would be doing it. Have a controversial strategy.
Scott McNealy
10.
I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me
Oscar Levant
11.
When you become controversial, when you want to promote new ideas, you need to be the face of it and not be scared.
Olivier Rousteing
12.
Bad news drives out good news. The irrational is more controversial than the rational. Concurrence can no longer compete with dissent. One minute of Eldridge Cleaver is worth ten minutes of Roy Wilkins. The labor crises settled at the negotiating table is nothing compared to the confrontation that results in a strike ... normality has become the nemesis of network news.
Spiro T. Agnew
13.
I am really the most controversial artist in the world.
Thomas Kinkade
14.
I like gold because it is a stabilizer; it is an insurance policy.
Kevin O'Leary
15.
A good joke provides tension, and then, release of that tension. You build the tension by saying things that are controversial. The release is the laugh. The bigger the surprise or insight in your joke, the bigger the laugh.
Greg Giraldo
16.
When I am no longer controversial, I will no longer be important
Gustave Courbet
17.
I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.
Shakira
18.
I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial.
Flannery O'Connor
19.
Global warming is controversial, of course, but the controversy is mainly over whether human activity is driving it.
Michio Kaku
20.
There are people who can talk sensibly about a controversial issue; they're called humorists.
Cullen Hightower
21.
I think that as I continue to write, my writing I hope will become more controversial and more provocative.
Christopher Darden
22.
It's never my intent to be controversial but I don't shy away from it.
Gary Myers
23.
Show business is my life. When I was a kid I sold insurance, but nobody laughed.
Don Rickles
24.
Thinking of the universe as a computer is controversial.
Seth Lloyd
25.
I don't mind being controversial. Even Jesus wasn't loved in his day.
Elvis Presley
26.
It is pretty hard to find the right result to a controversial issue.
Max Baucus
27.
If you've got a big mouth and you're controversial, you're going to get attention.
Simon Cowell
28.
But, you know, sex is controversial, it just is and it always will be.
Liam Neeson
29.
Just because you say something doesn't make it controversial, and it doesn't make you a bad person.
Charles Barkley
30.
My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial and beautifully coordinated, there is not much going on.
John F. Kennedy
31.
I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.
Sherman Alexie
32.
I have never knowingly made a non-controversial speech in my life.
Margaret Thatcher
33.
I just have my characters say my controversial opinions and then hide behind them.
Mindy Kaling
34.
We are not supposed to have an opinion. If we have an opinion, it has to be controversial – that is how we are always projected. It is difficult.
Shahrukh Khan
35.
I think controversy has this allusion of being controversial but it's totally not, which is why I'm trying to get away from it because it's just easy and automatic.
Bo Burnham
36.
An extraordinary and controversial interpretation of Shakespeare's origins, which certainly provokes much thought. A radical analysis of Shakespeare's text, leading to a conclusion which is bound to amaze the reader and the scholar. Who was Shakespeare?
Steven Berkoff
37.
I decided I ought to pick a project that would not be controversial, that would not really cost the government a lot of money.
Barbara Bush
38.
I know Reverend Jesse Jackson is controversial, and not a popular figure with many, but he hired me in 1984. He gave me my first job in politics.
Donna Brazile
39.
The chief beneficiary of life insurance policies for young, single people is the life insurance agent.
Wes Smith
40.
There are some current 'theories' that, when divested of begged questions, reduce to the non-controversial statement, 'Here are some facts and there may be some relation between them.'
Harold Jeffreys
41.
If you have to say or do something controversial, aim so that people will hate that they love it and not love that they hate it.
Criss Jami
42.
Girls' feels very active and stirring a conversation and controversial, and you can't really ask for more as an actor.
Adam Driver
43.
Michael Flynn is a very controversial figure for a variety of reasons.
Lawrence O'Donnell
44.
Let's put it in perspective at the United States Supreme Court, which hears maybe 60 cases a year, most of the cases are resolved without much dispute. The 10 or 15 that are controversial we all know about, and we hear about. The federal courts hear just a tiny sliver of the cases that go to court in this country. Most of the cases are in the state courts. And most legal issues never go to court. So, the legal system is actually not in jeopardy. At the same time, access to law is in jeopardy.
Martha Minow
45.
When you do controversial work, you're going to upset a certain amount of people.
Patti Smith
46.
I've always been called "controversial." I think if I were not controversial I wouldn't be doing my job.
Andrew Weil
47.
You know, the only reason net neutrality is controversial is because it's complicated.
Tim Wu
48.
Comprehensive, judicious, evenhanded, original. An Unfinished Life has the sober judgment and nuanced accuracy that make it ring true in all the controversial and tricky parts.
Jack Newfield
49.
I am a visible person. I'm visible and I'm controversial. I don't mind if you crave the limelight - but make it work for you!
Angela Alioto
50.
To get some of the substance of why [Michael] Flynn [is Defense Adviser] is so controversial.
John Heilemann