quotations about arguments & arguing
Altogether they puzzle me quite,
They all seem wrong and they all seem right.
ROBERT BUCHANAN
Fine Weather on the Digentia
But yet beware of councils when too full;
Number makes long disputes.
JOHN DENHAM
Of Prudence
Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault and truth discourtesy....
Calmness is a great advantage: he that lets
Another chafe, may warm him at his fire.
GEORGE HERBERT
The Church-Porch
Testimony is like the shot of a long-bow, which owes its efficacy to the force of the shooter; argument is like the shot of the cross-bow, equally forcible whether discharged by a giant or a dwarf.
ROBERT BOYLE
attributed, A Treatise on Facts as Subjects of Inquiry by a Jury
We arg'ed the thing at breakfast, we arg'ed the thing at tea,
And the more we arg'ed the question, the more we didn't agree.
WILL CARLETON
Betsy and I Are Out
It doesn't matter if I know of what I speak
The arguer's strong if the argument's weak
It's persistance, insistence, and a nice healthy winning streak
I got the last word in, I'm happy to announce
I got the last word in and that's all that counts
SICKO
Last Word
Though we cannot out-vote them, we will out-argue them.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
Who over-refines his argument brings himself to grief.
PETRARCH
To Laura in Life
Data levels all arguments.
ANTHONY W. RICHARDSON
Full-Scale
So high at last the contest rose,
From words they almost came to blows.
JAMES MERRICK
The Chameleon
Argument, of course, is the whole point of history. Disagreement; my word against yours; this evidence against that. If there were such a thing as absolute truth the debate would lose its lustre. I, for one, would no longer be interested.
PENELOPE LIVELY
Moon Tiger
He'd undertake to prove, by force
Of argument, a man's no horse;
He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl,
And that a Lord may be an owl,
A calf an Alderman, a goose a Justice,
And rooks, Committee-men or Trustees.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Hudibras
Much may be said on both sides.
HENRY FIELDING
Covent Garden Tragedy
A keen wit stabs harder than a finely honed argument.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Tess of the Road
The tree of knowledge blasted by dispute,
Produces saples leaves instead of fruit.
JOHN DENHAM
Progress of Learning