Quotes on Argument

We must reinforce argument with results.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

The more a race is governed by its passions, the less it has acquired the habit of cautious and reasoned argument, the more intense will be its love of music.

Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don't like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty.

There are two modes of knowledge: through argument and through experience. Argument brings conclusions and compels us to concede them, but it does not cause certainty nor remove doubts that the mind may rest in truth, unless this is provided by experience.

Go beyond science, into the region of metaphysics. Real religion is beyond argument. It can only be lived both inwardly and outwardly.

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals.

An argument would have begun to steam and boil and sputter - and you know how arguments end. Even if I had convinced him that he was wrong, his pride would have made it difficult for him to back down and give in.

You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.

Arguments that explain everything... explain nothing

In a false quarrel there is no true valor.

Who should listen to discussions of theology? Those for whom it is a serious undertaking, not just another subject like any other for entertaining small-talk, after the races, the theater, songs, food, and sex: for there are people who count chatter on theology and clever deployment of arguments as one of their amusements.

A good symbol is the best argument, and is a missionary to persuade thousands.

Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion. That is the tortured path to undoing step by step, bit by bit, as the river creates a canyon, the way of life that we love.

Poor mind, from the senses you take your arguments, and then want to defeat them? Your victory is your defeat.

I’ve learnt from experience that a painting isn’t finished when you put down your brush – that’s when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it.

When you talk and think of the Absolute, you have to do it in the relative; so all these logical arguments apply.