Argument Quotes - Page 11

• Forgiveness is the most effective way of dealing with arguments; altruism and forgiveness bring humanity together so that no conflict, however serious, will go beyond the bounds of what is truly human.

  Dalai Lama

  Happiness, Humanity, Together

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• We argue with our biology, and the result of that argument is civilization.

  Charles Siebert

  Civilization, Arguing, Biology

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• History is the art of making an argument about the past by telling a story accountable to evidence. In the writing of history, a story without an argument fades into antiquarianism; an argument without a story risks pedantry. Writing history requires empathy, inquiry, and debate. It requires forswearing condescension, cant, and nostalgia. The past isn’t quaint. Much of it, in fact, is bleak.

  Jill Lepore

  Art, Writing, Past

  Jill Lepore (2012). “The Story of America: Essays on Origins”, p.15, Princeton University Press

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• The best argument for anarchism is the twentieth century.

  Joseph Sobran

  Century, Anarchism, Twentieth Century

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• An argument frequently used by believers [is] to force unbelievers to soften their terms by accepting their opponents' definition; "Atheist" means without a concept of God that is logically convincing, not with proof that God does not exist.

  Jim Herrick

  Atheist, Mean, Doe

  Jim Herrick (1985). “Against the Faith: Essays on Deists, Skeptics, and Atheists”

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• Never preach a sermon without a text from the Bible, a text containing the theme which you can elaborate. The text is the best proof in support of your argument. A sermon without a text is an argument without a proof.

  Isaac Mayer Wise

  Support, Proof, Theme

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• We are told that the possession of nuclear weapons - in some cases even the testing of these weapons - is essential for national security. But this argument can be made by other countries as well.

  Joseph Rotblat

  Country, Essentials, Nuclear

  Joseph Rotblat, Daisaku Ikeda (2007). “A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat”, p.132, I.B.Tauris

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• Lutherans, whose arguments and mistakes will not be difficult to contest or discover, do not want to attribute any value to works, and they do not understand enough the scope of the justification.

  Michael Servetus

  Mistake, Want, Enough

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• It is bad enough that so many people believe things without any evidence. What is worse is that some people have no conception of evidence and regard facts as just someone else's opinion.

  Thomas Sowell

  Believe, People, Self Improvement

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• A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy.

  Joseph Addison

  Money, Philosophy, Men

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.80

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• The ego is a self-justifying historian which seeks only that information that agrees with it, rewrites history when it needs to, and does not even see the evidence that threatens it.

  Anthony Greenwald

  Self, Ego, Needs

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• It is astonishing how articulate one can become when alone and raving at a radio. Arguments and counter arguments, rhetoric and bombast flow from one's lips like scurf from the hair of a bank manager.

  Stephen Fry

  Hair, Radio, Flow

  Stephen Fry (2010). “Paperweight”, p.62, Random House

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• People often find it easier to refute a fake extreme opponent than a more cautious real one, so they knock down the straw man instead. It is actually worth the trouble to identify the invalid forms of argument, and to learn their names. Not only can you then avoid them yourself; you can also identify them in opponents. If you call your opponent's errors by their Latin names, you can make it look as though he or she is suffering from a rare tropical disease.

  Madsen Pirie

  Real, Latin, Men

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• When you can prove me wrong, then call me blind.

  Sophocles

  Blind, Call Me, Prove Me Wrong

  Sophocles (1951). “The Theban Plays: King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone”

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• There's nothing so passionate as a vested interest disguised as an intellectual conviction.

  Sean O'Casey

  Intellectual, Passionate, Conviction

  Sean O'Casey (1963). “Under a Colored Cap: Articles Merry and Mournful with Comments and a Song”

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• They looked at one another in incomprehension, two minds driving opposite ways up a narrow street and waiting for the other man to reverse first.

  Terry Pratchett

  Men, Opposites, Two

  Terry Pratchett (2009). “Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)”, p.208, Random House

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• Asking someone to repeat a phrase you'd not only heard very clearly but were also exceedingly angry about was around Defcon II in the lexicon of squabble.

  Terry Pratchett

  Phrases, Asking, Lexicon

  Terry Pratchett (2010). “Witches Abroad: (Discworld Novel 12)”, p.173, Random House

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• To strive with an equal is dangerous; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, degrading.

  Seneca the Younger

  Mad, Strive, Dangerous

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• Now therefore, that my mind is free from all cares, and that I have obtained for myself assured leisure in peaceful solitude, I shall apply myself seriously and freely to the general destruction of all my former opinions.

  Rene Descartes

  Peaceful, Solitude, Mind

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• To those who think that the law of gravity interferes with their freedom, there is nothing to say.

  Lionel Tiger

  Thinking, Law, Gravity

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• When I read passages like this, I want to look for the nearest wall to bang my head against.

  S. T. Joshi

  Wall, Want, Bangs

  S. T. Joshi (2003). “The Weird Tale”, p.15, Wildside Press LLC

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• It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress... it is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Understanding, Progress, Acting

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Chap. 7 : Majority Rules, 1960.

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• Students of popular science... are always insisting that Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism. This is generally believed, and I believed it myself until I read a book giving the reasons for it.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Book, Buddhism, Giving

  Gilbert K. Chesterton (2013). “The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton”, p.97, Simon and Schuster

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• When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wisdom, Children, Husband

  Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.553, Routledge

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• The number of arguments is unimportant unless some of them are correct.

  Ralph Hartley

  Numbers, Arguing, Unimportant

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