Devil's Advocate Quotes

Never play the Devil's Advocate. Your words could be the difference between success and failure in someone else.

Whenever you feel like feeling like a devil's advocate, Bible-thump. That, in a worldly world, is the great irony and satire of evangelism.

I hate people who say 'Just to play devil's advocate.'

If opponents of all important truths do not exist, it is indispensable to imagine them and supply them with the strongest arguments which the most skillful devil's advocate can conjure up.

Being a New Yorker is never having to say you are sorry.

Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow.

Freedom, baby, is never having to say youre sorry.

I'm the devil's advocate. We have our own worshipers.

If you give people an idea these days, they just think you are sharing it with them so they can critique it, play devil's advocate, and so on. It doesn't occur to them that they might help or get enthused or at least have the courtesy to get out of your way.

People have confused playing devil's advocate with being intelligent.

The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.

Love is overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate

John Kerry doesn't think in terms of black-and-white. He's all gray, and he looks at all sides of the issues. That makes people think he likes to be devil's advocate. Whatever you say, he'll challenge you on.

Better to reign in hell than serve in heav'n.

Encourage dissent: Leaders should have associates who have contrary views, who are devil's advocates, "variance sensors" who can tell them the difference between what is expected and what is really happening, between what they want to hear and what they need to hear. There are too many naked emperors running around today.

You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God... and where can you go from there?

That's one of those hazards of an interview: You get tired of your stock answer and you try to get creative and even play devil's advocate.

I hope you're representing the devil's advocate.

This does not mean that the profession is about to abandon Darwin forever or indorse [sic] my views publicly. The situation remains much as it was: the inner circles are full of doubt, but the public utterances are confident. The doubts may be greater now and the confidence less serene, but it will be a long time before the public is given the full dark picture. There is still need for a dissenting voice, a devil's advocate, a skeptical whistle-blower.

Avant-garde means never having to say you're sorry.

Vasectomy means never having to say you're sorry.