Dissension Quotes

“We are sometimes astounded by the behavior of emotional outlaws, as they act in line with their own standards, but proceed like bulls-in-a-china-shop, create one heck of a mess in their living environment and bring about shocking disturbing dissensions, ever since their inner construction clashes with our emotional architecture. (“Disruption”)”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Here they [the Jaredites] became a flourishing nation; but, giving way in time to internal dissensions, they divided into factions, which warred with one another until the people were totally destroyed (p. 15).”
― James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ: A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy Scriptures, Both Ancient and Modern

“Why don't you just do it, then?" Racath hissed. "Just kill me. I dare you."

Now, I assume you know what this is. You've seen this before in other stories - the part where the disgruntled villain stands over the hero. He is triumphant, the hero now at his mercy. But when commanded to slay him, he hesitates. He lowers his sword. And he says: "I cannot."

If you are to take away but one thing from the words I have spoken, let it be this: there is a world of difference between "I Cannot" and "I will not".

"I cannot" is a surrender. It implies a lack of options. Someone who says such a thing does so only because they have no other choice. They do not WISH to relent - in fact, they usually want to obey their mandate and destroy the hero at their feet. But they cannot, because the guilt is too unbearable. But that does not make him a better man; all that a man who says "I cannot" has done, is given in to the compulsion to repent.

Allow me to make myself perfectly clear - I HAD other options. Easy options. Simple options. I could have killed Racath Thanjel that day. I could have killed him and all the others, too. I could have left them dead and bloody on that grassy hill, and gone trotting back to the Imperator's lap. I could have shrugged off the attrition that had dogged my every step, thought better of my disenssion, given up on all hope of absolution and accepted my damnation. And I could have spent the rest of eternity destroying God's green earth at Lavethion's side.

I could have. It would have been so easy. So simple. So wrong. And I didn't want to.

And so I took a sickened step away. Stabbed Osveta into the grass. Shook my head. And said: "I won't.”
― S.G. Night, Dissension: the Second Act of Penance

“We usually learn from debates that we seldom learn from debates.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I know quite well why I became a historian.... It was because dissension was frowned upon when I was a child: 'Don't argue, Claudia,' 'Claudia, you must not answer back like that.' Argument, of course, is the whole point of history. Disagreement; my word against yours; this evidence against that. If there were such a thing as absolute truth the debate would lose its lustre. I, for one, would no longer be interested.”
― Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

“Could America go as a united country for Halloween this year?”
― Carmine Savastano

“My palm connected with the final looking-glass. A wave of brittle fractures rippled outward from the place my sanguine hand had struck. It shattered. I watched the pieces of my former life--the reflection of this monster I'd become—fall about my feet in a hailstorm of blood, tears, and broken mirrors. My attrition was complete. And now dissension boiled in my veins. I would find my penance. Even if God could not forgive me, even if she could not forgive me...maybe I could at least find the power to forgive myself.”
― S.G. Night, Dissension: the Second Act of Penance

“The strike spread with the speed of telepathy.”
― H.W. Brands, American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900

“The American radical will fight privilege and power, whether it be inherited or acquired by any small group, whether it be political or financial or organized creed. He curses a caste system, aware that it exists despite all patriotic denials. He will fight conservatives, whether they are business or labor leaders. He will fight any concentration of power hostile to a broad, popular democracy, whether he finds it in financial circles or in politics.

The radical recognizes that constant dissension and conflict is and has been the fire under the boiler of democracy.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Conflicts are, of course, an inevitable part of life. When dissension arises and testosterone runs high, our instinctual response is to defend our point of view by proving the other party wrong. But as with fighting back unnecessarily, this stubborn approach rarely leads to resolution and often fans the flames of conflict.”
― Sol Luckman, Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality