Argument Quotes

• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

  Dale Carnegie

  Sweet, Grandchildren, Way

  Dale Carnegie (2010). “How To Win Friends and Influence People”, p.115, Simon and Schuster

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• The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.

  Joseph Joubert

  Inspirational, Victory, Intelligence

  "The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert". Book by Joseph Joubert, translated by Paul Auster, 2005.

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• The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Ideas, Cures

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.429, Ballantine Books

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• Hear one side and you will be in the dark. Hear both and all will be clear.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Dark, Sides, Dialogue

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• My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument."

  Desmond Tutu

  Morning, Father, Voice

  126 Copy quote

• Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments.

  Nathanael Emmons

  Two, Three, Facts

  7 Copy quote

• It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

  William Gibbs McAdoo

  Ignorance, Humility, Men

  William Gibbs McAdoo (1971). “Crowded years: the reminiscences of William G. McAdoo”, Associated Faculty Pr Inc

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• Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; an argument an exchange of ignorance.

  Robert Quillen

  Anger, Ignorance, Knowledge

  60 Copy quote

• Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Taken, Justice, Opponents

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• In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.

  Publilius Syrus

  Sight, Loses

  9 Copy quote

• You punch me, I punch back. I do not believe it's good for one's self-respect to be a punching bag.

  Ed Koch

  Respect, Believe, Self

  "Ed Koch, mayor who became a symbol of NYC, dies at 88". www.usatoday.com. February 1, 2013.

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• Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

  Josh Billings

  Communication, Anger, Parenting

  Josh Billings (1972). “Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything, Distilled from Josh's Rum and Tansy New England Wit by Donald Day”

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• The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Hate, Discussion, I Hate

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• An Argument needs no reason; Nor any friendship.

  Ibycus

  Needs, Reason, Contention

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• People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

  Will Rogers

  Business, People, Mind

  Will Rogers, Bryan B. Sterling, Frances N. Sterling (1993). “Will Rogers' World: America's Foremost Political Humorist Comments on the Twenties and Thirties--and Eighties and Nineties”, p.45, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Whenever you argue with another wiser than yourself in order that others may admire your wisdom, they will discover your ignorance.

  Saadi

  Wise, Ignorance, Order

  Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.155, Innovations and Information

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• Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Logic, Epithet, Insolence

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.1647, Library of Alexandria

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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

  People, Victory, Would Be

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.106

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• The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific

  Claude C. Hopkins

  Often Is, Weight, May

  Dr. Robert C. Worstell, Claude C. Hopkins, John E. Kennedy, Albert D. Lasker “Scientific Advertising Origins”, Lulu.com

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• At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.

  Frederick Douglass

  Irony, Needed, Convincing

  What to the Slave is the 4th of July?, delivered 4 July 1852

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

  George Bernard Shaw

  Believe, Want, Belief

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• Let argument bear no unmusical sound.

  Ben Jonson

  Sound, Bears

  Ben Jonson (1856). “Poetical Works of Ben Jonson”, p.286

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• It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.

  Pierre Beaumarchais

  Order, Personality, Understanding

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• With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.

  William Lloyd Garrison

  Success, Men, Tyrants

  William Lloyd Garrison, Walter McIntosh Merrill, Louis Ruchames (1971). “The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: I will be heard, 1822-1835”, p.101, Harvard University Press

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• When you argue with your inferiors, you convince them of only one thing: they are as clever as you.

  Irving Layton

  Clever, Arguing, Convince

  Irving Layton (1969). “The whole bloody bird: obs, aphs & pomes”

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