Argument Quotes - Page 32

• Art has no need of philosophical arguments, it does not follow the signposts of philosophical systems; Art like life, dictates systems to philosophy.

  Naum Gabo

  Art, Philosophy, Philosophical

  Naum Gabo (2000). “Gabo on Gabo: Texts and Interviews”

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• The effort of painting from life has cost my models a great deal of physical discomfort, and cost me a great deal of money in model fees... I have wanted to make the camera obsolete... because, in my reading about early 20th century art, I found that the most frequently used argument made in favor of abstraction was that the camera made realist painting obsolete.

  Philip Pearlstein

  Photography, Art, Reading

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• We can't be anti-everything - we need an energy plan that adds up. But there's a lack of numeracy in the public discussion of energy. Where people do use numbers, they select them to sound big and score points in arguments, rather than to aid thoughtful discussion.

  David J. C. MacKay

  Thoughtful, Numbers, People

  "Think big on renewables scale" by David J. C. MacKay, www.theguardian.com. April 29, 2009.

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• Although people who had achieved a great deal in science and technology talked
  of the inscrutability of creativity, I was not convinced and disbelieved them immediately and without argument. Why should everything but creativity be open
  to scrutiny? What kind of process can this be which unlike all others is not subject
  to control?…What can be more alluring than the discovery of the nature of
  talented thought and converting this thinking from occasional and fleeting flashes
  into a powerful and controllable fire of knowledge.

  Genrich Altshuller

  Powerful, Creativity, Technology

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• Inclination snatches arguments To make indulgence seem judicious choice.

  George Eliot

  Choices, Indulgence, Inclination

  GEORGE ELIOT (1868). “THE SPANISH GYPSY”, p.59

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• Philosophy is not politics, and we do our best, within our all-too-human limitations, to seek the truth, not to score points against opponents. There is little satisfaction in gaining an easy triumph over a weak opponent while ignoring better arguments against your views.

  Peter Singer

  Philosophy, Views, Triumph

  "'Last Generation': A Response". opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. June 16, 2010.

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• Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic; since both are conversant with subjects of such a nature as it is the business of all to have a certain knowledge of, and which belong to no distinct science. Wherefore all men in some way participate of both; since all, to a certain extent, attempt, as well to sift, as to maintain an argument; as well to defend themselves, as to impeach.

  Aristotle

  Men, Way, Logic

  Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes (1823). “Aristotle's Treatise on Rhetoric”, p.1

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• In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Cheer, Father, Mean

  TV Interview with Enzo Biagi for Italian Television (RAI), www.margaretthatcher.org. March 10, 1986.

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• It seems idle to rail at ambition merely because it is a boundless passion; or rather is not this circumstance an argument in its favor? If one would be employed or amused through life, should we not make choice of a passion that will keep one long in play?

  William Shenstone

  Passion, Ambition, Play

  William Shenstone (1804). “Essays on Men and Manners”, p.99

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• Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss And mad'st it pregnant: What is in me dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the heighth of this great Argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men.

  John Milton

  God, Heart, Dark

  John Milton (2013). “Paradise Lost Simplified!: Includes Modern Translation, Study Guide, Historical Context, Biography, and Character Index”, p.9, BookCaps Study Guides

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• A new danger now beset him [Grotius], the danger of becoming simply a venal pleader, a creature who grinds out arguments on this or that side, for this or that client: a mere legal beast of prey. Fortunately for himself and for the world he took a higher view of his life-work: his determination clearly was to make himself a thoroughly equipped jurist, and then, as he rose more and more in his profession, to use his powers for the good of his country and of mankind.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Country, Determination, Views

  "Seven Great Statesmen in the Warfare of Humanity with Unreason". Book by Andrew Dickson White, p. 59, 1915.

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• For similar folly, our own country, in the transition from the colonial period, also paid a fearful price; and from a like catastrophe the United States has been twice saved in our time by the arguments formulated by Turgot.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Country, United States, Transition

  ANDREW DICKSON WHITE (1910). “SEVEN GREAT STATESMEN IN THE WARFARE OF HUMANITY WITH UNREASON”

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• Most people who serve in Washington have been trained either as lawyers or as political operatives--professions that tend to place a premium on winning arguments rather than solving problems.

  Barack Obama

  Winning, People, Political

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.48, Canongate Books

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• I might have arguments with the size of Reagan's military buildup, but given the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, staying ahead of the Soviets militarily seemed a sensible thing to do. Pride in our country, respect for our armed services, a healthy appreciation for the dangers beyond our borders, an insistence that there was no easy equivalence between East and West--in all this I had no quarrel with Reagan. And when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, I had to give the old man his due, even if I never gave him my vote.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Appreciation, Wall

  Barack Obama (2007). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.289, Canongate Books

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• It's a powerful instrument, dynamite -- nothing like it for a convincing argument!

  Leonid Andreyev

  Powerful, Instruments, Convincing

  Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev “Savva and the Life of Man: Two Plays by Leonid Andreyev”, Library of Alexandria

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• Those who insist on transferring the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council have received an additional argument for doing so.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Nuclear, Council, Iranian

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• The strong appearance of design [in nature] allows a disarmingly simple argument: if it looks, walks and quacks like a duck, then, absent compelling evidence to the contrary, we have warrant to conclude it's a duck. Design should not be overlooked simply because it's so obvious.

  Michael Behe

  Strong, Simple, Ducks

  "Design for Living" by Michael Behe, www.nytimes.com. February 7, 2005.

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• It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of the usual argument. The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy. But we need a humanistic ecology as well, both for the practical reason that people will always touch people more than snails do or can, and for the moral reason that humans are legitimately the measure of all ethical questions for these are our issues, not nature's.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Writing, Issues, Ethical Questions

  "Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Unenchanted Evening", p. 39, 1993.

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• Like the ostrich, head under wingWhen the roaring storm breaks,So many people take refugeUnder the soft pillowOf specious arguments.

  Georges Rouault

  Ostriches, People, Storm

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• Philosophical argument, trying to get someone to believe something whether he wants to believe it or not, is not, I have held, a nice way to behave towards someone; also it does not fit the original motivation for studying or entering philosophy. That motivation is puzzlement, curiousity, a desire to understand, not a desire to produce uniformity of belief. Most people do not want to become thought-police. The philosophical goal of explanation rather than proof not only is morally better, it is more in accord with one's philosophical motivation.

  Robert Nozick

  Motivation, Philosophy, Nice

  Robert Nozick (1981). “Philosophical Explanations”, p.13, Harvard University Press

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• There is also the very real possibility that, in the justice of God, one of the reasons He uses the weak and the foolish of the world is so that no argument could be made later that certain people were advantaged in some unfair way by that which was unearned-either in the premortal life or here. Hence it seems prudent for us to realize that just because one is set apart or ordained to a certain calling or assignment he or she must not expect to be set apart from the stresses of life. There appear to be no immunities.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Real, Stress, Justice Of God

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• Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that women ought to be subjected because she has always been so.... It is time to effect a revolution in female manners - time to restore to them their lost dignity.... It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Kings, Women, Pride

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• Ridicule is the first and last argument of a fool.

  Charles Simmons

  Lasts, Fool, Firsts

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• Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments. They must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Running, Ideas, Political

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• The infidelity that springs from the heart is not to be reached by a course of lectures on the evidences of Christianity; argument did not cause, and argument will not remove it.

  Mark Hopkins

  Spring, Heart, Infidelity

  Mark Hopkins (2009). “Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity”, p.360, Applewood Books

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