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If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling.
-Joseph Addison
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"He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own."
-Aesop
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"I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me."
-Dave Barry
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My wife was too beautiful for words, but not for arguments.
-John Barrymore
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"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."
-Josh Billings
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Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.
-Erma Bombeck
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Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which come from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originally to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.
-Daniel J. Boorstin, “Dissent, Dissension, and the News,” The Decline of Radicalism: Reflections on America Today, Random House (1960)
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As debate is rare in the House of Representatives, since nearly all real business is done in the committees, it is very natural that such debate as there is should be very oratorical, should be “sounding off,” not discussion. And this is one of the reasons why public speaking in America is still so rhetorical, why audiences for example do not often “heckle” a speaker, bombard him with questions, or embarrass him with ironical applause or laughter. It is almost as rare to interrupt a political speech as it is to interrupt a sermon. In the Senate, things are different. Any senator who can get the floor can talk as long as his wind lasts. He cannot be out of order unless he takes the most extravagant liberties. So Senate debates are often lively, often educational. They are very different from the formal pieces declaimed in the other house, or even printed and sent to the voters without being spoken at all. A senator has to persuade his colleagues, even those of his own party, or he has to intimidate them, and so the Senate has a high representation of public speakers who can discuss as well as declaim.
-D. W. Brogan, The American Character, pt. 2, ch. 3, Knopf (1944)
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I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defence of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty—the cause of humanity.
When this debate is concluded, a motion will be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration... We object to bringing this question down to the level of persons. The individual is but an atom; he is born, he acts, he dies; but principles are eternal; and this has been a contest over a principle.
-William Jennings Bryan, "Cross of Gold", Speech concluding debate on the Chicago Platform at the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois, July 9, 1896
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Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.
-Thomas Carlyle, “The Hero as a Man of Letters,” lecture 5, On Heroes and Hero-Worship (1841)
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Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save face? He didn't ask for your opinion. He didn't want it. Why argue with him? You can't win an argument, because if you lose, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior, you hurt his pride, insult his intelligence, his judgment, and his self-respect, and he'll resent your triumph. That will make him strike back, but it will never make him want to change his mind. "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still."
-Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People
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People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.
-G. K. Chesterton
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Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
-Leonardo DaVinci
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Nothing is as frustrating as arguing with someone who knows what he's talking about.
-Sam Ewig
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If you go in for argument, take care of your temper. Your logic, if you have any, will take care of itself.
-Joseph Farrell
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Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.
-William Ewart Gladstone
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The most important tactic in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without an embarrassing loss of face.
-Sydney J. Harris
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"The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it."
-Edward W. Howe
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"The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you."
-Kin Hubbard
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An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
-Thomas Jefferson
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Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
-Samuel Johnson
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"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."
-Joseph Joubert
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me."
-Dudley Field Malone
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"He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak."
-Michel de Montaigne
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"There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."
-Michel de Montaigne
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"You have not converted a man because you have silenced him."
-John Morley, On Compromise, 1874
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"If you agree with some tenets of Objectivism, but disagree with others, do not call yourself an Objectivist; give proper authorship credit for the parts you agree with—and then indulge in any flights of fancy you wish, on your own."
-Ayn Rand, "To the Readers of The Objectivist Forum”, "The Objectivist Forum, Vol. 1, No. 1"
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"A man never tells you anything until you contradict him."
-George Bernard Shaw
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Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.
-Jonathan Swift
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At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right.
-Miguel de Unamuno, in a confrontation with fascist General Milan-Astray, at the University of Salamanca
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Books about Argument & Debate
