Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do

I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error.

— James A. Garfield

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind.

— Adlai E. Stevenson

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

— Anonymous

Professors who hold unpopular positions or state inconvenient facts are now considered psychologically toxic.

— Amy Wax

“Decision making brings together many of the finest traits of contrarian leadership--thinking gray, thinking free, artful listening, delegating authority while retaining ultimate responsibility,artful procrastination,…

— Steven B. Sample

To be a contrarian, you've got to be a contrarian against your own people.

— James Carville

“Let’s watch out for the unpredictability and the wildcat jumps of contrarian people, whose sole interests are soaring targets at high-speed, at all costs…

— Erik Pevernagie

None of this means, however, that a business or stock is an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just…

— Warren Buffett

When the things in front of you in life reveal how messed up the system is, you lose faith in the system pretty quickly.…

— Jalen Rose

The very act of becoming an entrepreneur is contrarian to middle class values, study hard, get a good job, be happy with secure income…

— Rashmi Bansal

When your views are truly contrarian, they are inevitably uncomfortable. Courage and the ability to withstand pain are required,

— Michael Steinhardt

Value investing is at its core the marriage of a contrarian streak and a calculator.

— Seth Klarman

It’s actually pretty easy to be contrarian. It’s hard to be contrarian and right.

— Reid Hoffman

Contrarian thinking at its best simply asks, Is this really true? It speaks up when the politically correct answer or the conventional wisdom doesn't…

— Larry Osborne

I have contrarian tendencies.

— George T. Conway III