Argument Quotes - Page 25

• Art is always at peril in universities, where there are so many people, young and old, who love art less than argument, and dote upon a text that provides the nutritious pemmican on which scholars love to chew.

  Robertson Davies

  Art, People, Peril

  Robertson Davies (1996). “The Cunning Man”, Penguin Group USA

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• Unlike every other nation in the world, the United States defines itself as a hypothesis and constitutes itself as an argument.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  United States, World, Hypothesis

  Lewis H. Lapham (1997). “Waiting for the Barbarians”, p.64, Verso

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• A new danger now beset him [Grotius], the danger of becoming simply a venal pleader, a creature who grinds out arguments on this or that side, for this or that client: a mere legal beast of prey. Fortunately for himself and for the world he took a higher view of his life-work: his determination clearly was to make himself a thoroughly equipped jurist, and then, as he rose more and more in his profession, to use his powers for the good of his country and of mankind.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Country, Determination, Views

  "Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason". Book by Andrew Dickson White, p. 59, 1915.

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• For similar folly, our own country, in the transition from the colonial period, also paid a fearful price; and from a like catastrophe the United States has been twice saved in our time by the arguments formulated by Turgot.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Country, United States, Transition

  ANDREW DICKSON WHITE (1910). “SEVEN GREAT STATESMEN IN THE WARFARE OF HUMANITY WITH UNREASON”

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• I am the eternal optimist. I think that, over time, people respond to civility and -- and rational argument.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, People, Reason

  "Obama takes questions on economy". Barack Obama's comments during his first prime time televised news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, www.cnn.com. February 9, 2009.

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• Most people who serve in Washington have been trained either as lawyers or as political operatives--professions that tend to place a premium on winning arguments rather than solving problems.

  Barack Obama

  Winning, People, Political

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.48, Canongate Books

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• I might have arguments with the size of Reagan's military buildup, but given the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, staying ahead of the Soviets militarily seemed a sensible thing to do. Pride in our country, respect for our armed services, a healthy appreciation for the dangers beyond our borders, an insistence that there was no easy equivalence between East and West--in all this I had no quarrel with Reagan. And when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, I had to give the old man his due, even if I never gave him my vote.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Appreciation, Wall

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.289, Canongate Books

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• A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister... For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.

  Clarence Thomas

  Courage, Truth, Justice

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• In science , all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith.

  Michael Shermer

  Faith, Religious, Evidence

  Michael Shermer (2010). “Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown”, p.197, Macmillan

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• It's a powerful instrument, dynamite -- nothing like it for a convincing argument!

  Leonid Andreyev

  Powerful, Instruments, Convincing

  Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev “Savva and the Life of Man: Two Plays by Leonid Andreyev”, Library of Alexandria

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• Those who insist on transferring the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council have received an additional argument for doing so.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Nuclear, Council, Iranian

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• The strong appearance of design [in nature] allows a disarmingly simple argument: if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, then, absent compelling evidence to the contrary, we have warrant to conclude it's a duck. Design should not be overlooked simply because it's so obvious.

  Michael Behe

  Strong, Simple, Ducks

  "Design for Living" by Michael Behe, www.nytimes.com. February 7, 2005.

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• It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of the usual argument. The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy. But we need a humanistic ecology as well, both for the practical reason that people will always touch people more than snails do or can, and for the moral reason that humans are legitimately the measure of all ethical questions for these are our issues, not nature's.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Writing, Issues, Ethical Questions

  "Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Unenchanted Evening", p. 39, 1993.

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• We must now examine whether just people also live better and are happier than unjust ones. I think it's clear already that this is so, but we must look into it further, since the argument concerns no ordinary topic, but the way we ought to live.

  Plato

  Thinking, People, Looks

  Republic, bk.1, 352d (translated by GM AGrube, revised by C D C Reeve).

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• Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.

  Plutarch

  Force, Thousand, Sentences

  Plutarch, John Dryden (1859). “Plutarch's Lives”, p.334

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• Pythias once, scoffing at Demosthenes, said that his arguments smelt of the lamp.

  Plutarch

  Lamps, Scoffing, Said

  "Life of Demosthenes". Book by Plutarch. "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th edition", 1919.

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• Like the ostrich, head under wingWhen the roaring storm breaks,So many people take refugeUnder the soft pillowOf specious arguments.

  Georges Rouault

  Ostriches, People, Storm

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• It is not a sensible or intelligent response for us in Europe to ridicule American arguments and parody their political leadership.

  Tony Blair

  Intelligent, Europe, Political

  Tony Blair's Address on Foreign Policy at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London, www.theguardian.com. November 16, 2004.

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• It is indeed a matter of great difficulty to discover, and effectually to distinguish, the true motions of particular bodies from the apparent; because the parts of that immovable space, in which those motions are performed, do by no means come under the observation of our senses. Yet the thing is not altogether desperate; for we have some arguments to guide us, partly from the apparent motions, which are the differences of the true motions; partly from the forces, which are the causes and effects of the true motions.

  Isaac Newton

  Mean, Differences, Space

  Sir Isaac Newton (2016). “Delphi Collected Works of Sir Isaac Newton (Illustrated)”, p.470, Delphi Classics

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• I think that argument is completely morally bankrupt, and I think people know that when they make it. There's a very big difference between having a sincere, passionate interest in a topic and being a paid shill. Particularly for PR firms, it's something they should really very strongly avoid: ever touching an article.

  Jimmy Wales

  Thinking, Differences, People

  PRWeek, January 30, 2007.

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• I do not overlook the fact that there are irrationalists who love mankind, and that not all forms of irrationalism engender criminality. But I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate. (Socrates, I believe, saw something of this when he suggested that mistrust or hatred of argument is related to mistrust or hatred of man).

  Karl Popper

  Hate, Believe, Men

  "The Open Society and Its Enemies". Book by Karl Popper. Volume 2, Chapter 24: "Oracular Philosophy and the Revolt against Reason", 1945.

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• Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments. They must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Running, Ideas, Political

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• The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse, For Tories own no argument but force; With equal care, to Cambridge books he sent, For Whigs allow no force but argument.

  William Browne

  Horse, Kings, Book

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• To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is an art worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

  Aristophanes

  Art, Triumph, Hundred

  Aristophanes (2015). “The Clouds”, p.61, Aristophanes

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• I'm not good at precise, coherent argument. But plays are suited to incoherent argument, put into the mouths of fallible people.

  Alan Bennett

  Play, People, Mouths

  1991 In the Sunday Times, 24 Nov.

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