#Argument Quotes

“Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry. Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting. Petruchio: My remedy is then, to pluck it out. Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies. Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. Katherine: In his tongue. Petruchio: Whose tongue? Katherine: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell. Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.”

“He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.”

“Waste not thy time in windy argument but let the matter drop.”

“I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me.”

“Give me the facts, and I will twist them the way I want, to suit my argument.”

“There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.”

“The object of Parliament is to substitute argument for fisticuffs.”

“The bitter clamor of two eager tongues.”

“not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.”

“The facts of the case will always have the better of [an] argument.”

“Did you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone who is not obsessed with being right?”

“More words ain't good for anything in the world only to bring on more argument.”

“Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.”

“A witty saying proves nothing.”

“How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!”

“I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument.”

“A good action is preferable to an argument.”

“Weakness on both sides is, as we know, the motto of all quarrels.”

“Never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude and shooting one another.”

“Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.”

“Before receiving your instruction, I must tell you what happened to me one day. I had just had a closet built at the end of my garden. I heard a mole arguing with a cockchafer; 'Here's a fine structure,' said the mole, 'it must have been a very powerful mole who did this work.' 'You're joking,' said the cockchafer; 'it's a cockchafer full of genius who is the architect of this building.' From that moment I resolved never to argue.”

“If the book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose.”

“A man in the wrong may more easily be convinced than one half right.”

“When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine. Why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? ...Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.”

“The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn't work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.”

“Our whole educational system, from the elementary schools to the universities, is increasingly turning out people who have never heard enough conflicting arguments to develop the skills and discipline required to produce a coherent analysis, based on logic and evidence. The implications of having so many people so incapable of confronting opposing arguments with anything besides ad hominem responses reach far.”

“If you cannot prove a man wrong, don't panic. You can always call him names.”

“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

“It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.”

“When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.”

“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”

“If you're explaining, you're losing.”

“Mistakes are made on two counts: an argument is either based on error or incorrectly developed.”

“There is nothing like instances to grow hair on a bald-headed argument.”

“I've come loaded with statistics, for I've noticed that a man can't prove anything without statistics. No man can.”

“The partisan when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.”

“Good heavens, I suppose a man may eat his own muffins in his own garden." "But you have just said it was perfectly heartless to eat muffins!" "I said it was perfectly heartless of YOU under the circumstances. That is a very different thing." "That may be, but the muffins are the same!”

“I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.”

“I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think; but if you ask me how I dare say so, or why it is so, I am the most helpless of men.”

“So you see how endlessly futile and fruitless it would be if we wanted to refute their objections every time they obstinately resolved not to think through what they say but merely to speak, just so long as they contradict our arguments in any way they can.”

“I'm sorry, if you were right, I'd agree with you.”

“I really do not know, Socrates, how to express what I mean. For somehow or other our arguments, on whatever ground we rest them, seem to turn round and walk away from us.”

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

“Well I won't argue about the matter. You always want to argue about things. That is exactly what things were originally made for.”

“It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.”

“Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”

“The only way by which you and I can wean orthodox Hindus from their bigotry is by patient argument and correct conduct.”

“Don't wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”

“Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours.”

“Quarrel with a friend - and you are both wrong.”