Argument Quotes - Page 23

• Love is a grin, a look in the eye whispering what are we doing, appearing in silly arguments had for the sake of them.

  Craig Stone

  Silly, Eye, Love Is

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• Great power constitutes its own argument, and it never has much trouble drumming up friends, applause, sympathetic exegesis, and a band.

  Bill Vaughan

  Power, Band, Drumming

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• It's actually quite common for presidents to believe that future generations will render a verdict on their presidencies that is more lasting or definitive than the judgments of their contemporaries. The reason is that although history is certainly "an argument without end" - we're still debating many age-old questions - time does help settle others.

  David Greenberg

  Believe, Age, President

  "Making Presidential History". Live chat, www.slate.com. August 9, 2007.

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• I think that the environmental movement is wisely moving away from a largely emotion-based argument for the spiritual or intrinsic value of Nature with a capital "N" and evolving toward a very hard-nosed case for the economic value of natural capital, ecosystem services, biodiversity, etc.

  Edward Norton

  Spiritual, Moving, Thinking

  "Dialogues on the Environment: Q&A With Edward Norton". Interview with Mark Tercek, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 6, 2013.

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• I love the question-and-answer. I love to see liberals try to thrash their way to a coherent argument. And actually, I think it's fun to debate.

  Ann Coulter

  Fun, Thinking, Trying

  "Ann Coulter Reacts After John Edwads Calls Her a "She-Devil". "Hannity & Colmes" with Alan Colmes, www.foxnews.com. August 23, 2007.

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• Great novelists are philosopher novelists - that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.

  Albert Camus

  Writing, Novelists, Philosopher

  "Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus)". Book by Albert Camus (Chapter 1: An Absurd Reasoning), 1955.

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• [Ognev] recalled endless, heated, purely Russian arguments, when the wranglers, spraying spittle and banging their fists on the table, fail to understand yet interrupt one another, themselves not even noticing it, contradict themselves with every phrase, change the subject, then, having argued for two or three hours, begin to laugh.

  Anton Chekhov

  Two, Laughing, Wranglers

  "Verotchka". Book by Anton Chekhov, February 21, 1887.

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• Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story's persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.

  Jonathan Gottschall

  Attitude, Writing, Psychology

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• In disputes upon moral or scientific points, ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.

  James Burgh

  Loss, Discovery, Opponents

  James Burgh (1816). “Of prudence”, p.38

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• Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Animal, Simple, Views

  "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Our Natural Place", p. 243, 1983.

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• The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Animal, Doubt, Machines

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• The great merit of Stephen Gould's account of the disastrous history of phychometrics is that he shifts the argument from a sterile contest between environmentalists and hereditarians and turns it into an argument between those who are impressed with what our biology stops us doing and those who are impressed with what it allows us to do.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Merit, Biology, Environmentalist

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• One of the appeals of markets, as a public philosophy, is they seem to spare us the need to engage in public arguments about the meaning of goods. So markets seem to enable us to be non-judgmental about values. But I think that's a mistake.

  Michael Sandel

  Philosophy, Mistake, Thinking

  "Michael Sandel: 'We need to reason about how to value our bodies, human dignity, teaching and learning'". Interview with Decca Aitkenhead, www.theguardian.com. May 27, 2012.

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• I have been so satisfied with the Christian religion that I have spent no time trying to find arguments against it. I am not afraid now that you will show me any. I feel that I have enough information to live and die by.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Christian, Trying, Information

  Statements at the Scopes Trial, July 1925.

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• The argument against the persecution of opinion does not depend upon what the excuse for persecution may be. The argument is that we none of us know all truth, that the discovery of new truth is promoted by free discussion and rendered very difficult by suppression.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Discovery, Doe

  Bertrand Russell (1935). “Religion and science”

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• People will tell us that without the consolations of religion they would be intolerably unhappy. So far as this is true, it is a coward's argument. Nobody but a coward would consciously choose to live in a fool's paradise. When a man suspects his wife of infidelity, he is not thought the better of for shutting his eyes to the evidence. And I cannot see why ignoring evidence should be contemptible in one case and admirable in the other.

  Bertrand Russell

  Eye, Men, People

  Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.546, Psychology Press

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• The notion of rights is linked with the notion of sharing out, of exchange, of measured quantity. It has a commercial flavor, essentially evocative of legal claims and arguments. Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at.

  Simone Weil

  Rely Upon, Rights, Tone

  Simone Weil (1977). “The Simone Weil Reader”

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• Strange it is that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free speech but object to their being "pushed to an extreme," not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case.

  John Stuart Mill

  Men, Freedom Of Speech, Strange

  "On Liberty". Book by John Stuart Mill, 1859.

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• Any person of any philosophic persuasion who sits on a hot stove will verify without any intellectual argument whatsoever that he is in an undeniably low-quality situation: that the value of his predicament is negative. This low quality is not just a vague, woolly-headed, crypto-religious, metaphysical abstraction. It is an experience. It is not a judgment about an experience. It is not a description of experience. The value itself is an experience. As such it is completely predictable. It is verifiable by anyone who cares to do so.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Religious, Intellectual, Quality

  "Lila : An Inquiry Into Morals". Book by Robert M. Pirsig, 1991.

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• One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans-- anything except reason.

  Thomas Sowell

  Education, Years, People

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.403, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The only thing worse than being on the wrong side of an argument is to be on the right side with no one listening.

  Evan Esar

  Listening, Sides, No One Listening

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• Providence and Manifest Destiny are synonyms often invoked to support arguments based on wishful thinking.

  Frank Herbert

  Destiny, Thinking, Support

  "Whipping Star". Book by Frank Herbert, "From The Wreave Commentary"; p. 136, 1969.

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• If ever there was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human heart can endure, it is the cause of Education. It has intrinsic and indestructible merits. It holds the welfare of mankind in its embrace, as the protecting arms of a mother hold her infant to her bosom. The very ignorance and selfishness which obstructs its path are the strongest arguments for its promotion, for it furnishes the only adequate means for their removal.

  Horace Mann

  Education, Mother, Ignorance

  Horace Mann (1867). “Thoughts”, p.7

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• In a branch of medicine rife with paradoxes, contradictions, inconsistencies, and illogic, episiotomy crowns them all. The major argument for episiotomy is that it protects the perineum from injury, a protection accomplished by slicing through perineal skin, connective, tissue, and muscle.

  Henci Goer

  Medicine, Skins, Crowns

  Henci Goer (1995). “Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realities: A Guide to the Medical Literature”, p.276, Greenwood Publishing Group

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• I will say that what’s been funny is, since the lightsaber’s come out, I cannot tell you how many contradictory emails I have received from people who have both defended it with unbelievably detailed graphicsI’ve gotten things that are nuts, and I’ve gotten people who’ve shown how it’ll kill you and how it doesn’t make any sense.  It’s been the funniest thing to see the arguments that have developed over this thing.

  J. J. Abrams

  Nuts, People, Email

  "Exclusive: J.J. Abrams Talks STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS and That New Lightsaber" by Adam Chitwood, collider.com. February 5, 2015.

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