Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.
And there began a lang digressionAbout the lords o' the creation.
He'd undertake to prove, by forceAnd rooks, Committee-men or Trustees.
Whatever Sceptic could inquire for,For every why he had a wherefore.
I've heard old cunning stagersSay, fools for arguments use wagers.
'Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch,For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch.
When Bishop Berkeley said, "there was no matter,"And proved it—'twas no matter what he said.
The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Even good arguments fail, if they are spiced with digressions.
A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.
Reproachful speech from either sideThe contests of disputing friends.
His conduct still right with his argument wrong.
In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill,For even though vanquished he could argue still.
I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.
Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makesError a fault, and truth discourtesy.
I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
The brilliant chief, irregularly great,Frank, haughty, rash—the Rupert of debate.
In argument with men a woman everGoes by the worse, whatever be her cause.
The very nature of deliberation and argumentation is opposed to necessity and self-evidence, since no one deliberates where the solution is necessary or argues argues against what is self-evident.
Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past,We find our tenets just the same at last.
The first the Retort Courteous; the second the Quip Modest; the third the Reply Churlish; the fourth the Reproof Valiant; the fifth the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh the Lie Direct.
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things.
For they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.
She hath prosperous artAnd well she can persuade.
Ah, don't say that you agree with me. When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong.
Much might be said on both sides.
I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.
The noble Lord (Stanley) was the Prince Rupert to the Parliamentary army—his valour did not always serve his own cause.
How agree the kettle and the earthen pot together?
The daughter of debate That still discord doth sow.
I always admired Mrs. Grote's saying that politics and theology were the only two really great subjects.
Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument,He'll bray you in a mortar.
There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
Myself when young did eagerly frequentCame out by the same door wherein I went.
Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours."
In some places he draws the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.
In argumentThey must describe; they nothing prove.
One single positive weighs more,You know, than negatives a score.
Soon their crude notions with each other fought;Who contradicted what the last maintain'd.
Agreed to differ.
...You can't win an argument by being right, either