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Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.
-Samuel Butler
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We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.
-Samuel Butler
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Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.
-Samuel Butler
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The dust of controversy is merely the falsehood flying off.
-Thomas Carlyle
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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
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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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When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
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It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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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There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.
-Daniel C. Dennett
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Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.
-Marie Ebner-Eschenbach
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Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments.
-Nathaniel Emmons
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I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.
-Nora Ephron
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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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Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.
-Benjamin Franklin
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He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.
-Benjamin Franklin
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I had a lovers quarrel with the world.
-Robert Frost
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Never contend with one that is foolish, proud, positive, testy, or with a superior, or a clown, in matter of argument.
-Thomas Fuller
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When good people have a falling out, only one of them may be at fault at first; but if the strife continues long, usually both become guilty.
-Thomas Fuller
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Soft words are hard arguments.
-Thomas Fuller
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Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
-Andre Gide
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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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Books about Argument & Debate
