Argument

QUOTES

That happy sense of purpose people have when they are standing up for a principle they haven't really been knocked down for yet.
 P J O'Rourke
 Give War a Chance, 1992

Our disputants put me in mind of the skuttlefish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible.
 Joseph Addison
 Spectator, 1712

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
 Josh Billings
 1865

It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
 William Inge
 Outspoken Essays, 1919

I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.
 Nora Ephron
 Esquire, 1976

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear better.
 GeorgeSantayana
 1922

He that always gives way to others will end having no principles of his own.
 Aesop
 -550

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
 John Morley
 On Compromise, 1874

Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade.
 Edward Gibbon
 Decline , 1778

See Also Logic

References

Arts & Science