 
|
Use soft words and hard arguments.
-English Proverb
|
|
|
|
It takes two to quarrel, but only one to end it.
-Proverb
|
|
|
|
Soft words win hard hearts.
-Proverb
|
|
|
|
Two dogs strive for a bone and the third one runs off with it.
-Proverb
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.
-Joseph Addison
|
|
|
|
The long term versus the short term argument is one used by losers.
-Larry Adler
|
|
|
|
He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.
-Aesop
|
|
|
|
Wise men argue cases, fools decide them.
-Anacharsis
|
|
|
|
We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.
-Antisthenes
|
|
|
|
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. For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns. his hearer's mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.
-Roger Bacon
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
My wife was too beautiful for words, but not for arguments.
-John Barrymore
|
|
|
|
It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.
-Pierre De Beaumarchais
|
|
|
|
No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.
-Lyman Beecher
|
|
|
|
Most of the arguments to which I am party fall somewhat short of being impressive, knowing to the fact that neither I nor my opponent knows what we are talking about
-Robert Benchley
|
|
|
|
Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.
-Walter Benjamin
|
|
|
|
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
-Josh Billings
|
|
|
|
Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.
-Erma Bombeck
|
|
|
|
I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunch time.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.
-Louis D. Brandeis
|
|
|
|
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
-D. W. Brogan
The American Character, pt. 2, ch. 3, Knopf (1944)
|
|
|
|
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
-William Jennings Bryan
Cross of Gold, Speech concluding debate on the Chicago Platform at the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Illinois, July 9, 1896
|
|
|
|
It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy -- but he who has shown the better temper.
-Samuel Butler
|
|
Books about Argument & Debate
