quotations about arguments & arguing
The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.
OSCAR WILDE
The Critic as Artist
You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.
BEN GOLDACRE
Bad Science
If he take you in hand, sir, with an argument,
He'll bray you in a mortar.
BEN JONSON
The Alchemist
One single positive weighs more,
You know, than negatives a score.
MATTHEW PRIOR
Epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd
Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself, in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.
SADI
Gulistan
The quiet shaft of ridicule oftimes does more than argument.
WILLIAM SCARBOROUGH
attributed, And I Quote
Much virtue in If.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
As You Like It
The kind of truth that can be asserted by argument had lost all glamour, all lustre, for him, seeming no more now than another aspect of that ancient urge -- much older than the desire for truth -- to command attention.
BARRY UNSWORTH
Sacred Hunger
Argument is a gift of Nature.
CHARLES DICKENS
Barnaby Rudge
And friendly free discussion, calling forth
From the fair jewel, Truth, its latent ray.
JAMES THOMSON
Liberty
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
JOHN MORLEY
On Compromise
Never maintain an argument with heat and clamour, though you think or know yourself to be in the right.
LORD CHESTERFIELD
letter, October 16, 1747
Just consider how terrible the day of your death will be
Others will go on speaking and you will not be able to argue back
RAM MOHAN ROY
attributed, Africa Quarterly, 2006
And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
In arguing, answer your opponent's earnest with jest and his jest with earnest.
ARISTOTLE
Rhetoric
Debate destroys despatch.
JOHN DENHAM
Of Prudence
We may convince others by our arguments; but we can only persuade them by their own.
JOSEPH JOUBERT
Pensées
This is no time nor fitting place to mar
The mirthful meeting with a wordy war.
LORD BYRON
Lara
There are two sides to every question.
PROTAGORAS
Protagoras
Brief and bitter the debate.
ROBERT BROWNING
Hervé Riel