Argument Quotes - Page 4

• My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument."

  Desmond Tutu

  Morning, Father, Voice

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• Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Anger

  Oscar Wilde (1947). “The Happy Prince”, p.16, New Line Publishing

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• One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Tone, Opinion

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• Heat and animosity, contest and conflict, may sharpen the wits, although they rarely do; they never strengthen the understanding, clear the perspicacity, guide the judgment, or improve the heart.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Anger, Heart, Understanding

  Walter Savage Landor (1856). “Selections from the Writings of Walter Savage Landor”, p.242

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• The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.

  Andre Maurois

  Opinion, Arguing, Difficult

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The argument of the strongest is always the best.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Strongest

  "Fables (Book 1)". Book by Jean de La Fontaine, 1668-1694.

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• In a false quarrel there is no true valor.

  William Shakespeare

  Quarrels, Valor

  'Much Ado About Nothing' (1598-9) act 5, sc. 1, l. [121]

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Learning, Humility

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?" Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003.

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• How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!

  Walt Whitman

  Deeds

  1855 Leaves of Grass, 'Broad-Axe Song', later 'Song of the Broad- Axe' (from 1867).

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• Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

  Rufus Choate

  Sarcasm, Irony

  "Dictionary of American Maxims". Book by David George Plotkin, 1955.

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• Argument is conclusive, but it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless it finds it by the method of experiment.

  Roger Bacon

  Doubt, Mind, Doe

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• Passionate expression and vehement assertion are no arguments, unless it be of the weakness of the cause that is defended by them, or of the man that defends it.

  William Chillingworth

  Men, Expression, Causes

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• The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.

  Lord Acton

  Sunset, Long, Loser

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• A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.

  John Dryden

  Blow

  John Dryden (1808). “The Works of John Dryden: Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author”, p.19

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• A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.

  Carl Sagan

  Freedom, Science, Simple

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.176, Ballantine Books

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• [Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Self, Two

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.362, Ballantine Books

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• There are some people as obtuse in recognizing an argument as they are in appreciating wit. You couldn't drive it into their heads with a hammer.

  Douglas William Jerrold

  People, Appreciate, Hammers

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• Some men at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses. Unless there be an argument, they think nothing is doing. Some talkers excel in the precision with which they formulate their thoughts, so that you get from them somewhat to remember; others lay criticism asleep by a charm. Especially women use words that are not words,--as steps in a dance are not steps,--but reproduce the genius of that they speak of; as the sound of some bells makes us think of the bell merely, whilst the church chimes in the distance bring the church and its serious memories before us.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Horse, Memories, Distance

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• The first race of mankind used to dispute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rule of art.

  Joseph Addison

  Art, Race, People

  Joseph Addison (1854). “The Works of Joseph Addison: The Spectator”, p.560

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• Nothing is more certain than much of the force; as well as grace, of arguments or instructions depends their conciseness.

  Alexander Pope

  Grace, Instruction, Force

  Alexander Pope (1873). “The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope Edited with Notes and Introductory Memoir by Adolphus William Ward”, p.192

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• Argument is conclusive, but it does not remove doubt.

  Roger Bacon

  Doubt, Doe, Remove

  "Memorable Quotations: Philosophers of Western Civilization". Book edited by Carol Dingle, p. 21, 2000.

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• We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.

  Antisthenes

  Running, Teaching, Mad

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations". Pp. 779-80, 1922.

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• No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.

  Lyman Beecher

  Science, Controversial Topics, Achievement

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 162, 1895.

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• When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Men, Novelists

  Ayn Rand (1999). “The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution”, p.81, Penguin

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• It became the middle finger I couldn’t raise in PR photographs. The mustache became my silent last word in the verbal battles I was losing with higher headquarters on rules, targets, and fighting the war.

  Robin Olds

  War, Fighting, Mustache

  Christina Olds, Ed Rasimus, Robin Olds (2010). “Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds”, p.284, Macmillan

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