Statements

"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."

""Or he might say: 'Whereas some recluses and brahmins, while living on the food offered by the faithful, engage in wrangling argumentation, (saying to one another): "You don't understand this doctrine and discipline. I am the one who understands this doctrine and discipline." — "How can you understand this doctrine and discipline?" — "You're practising the wrong way. I'm practising the right way." — "I'm being consistent. You're inconsistent." — "What should have been said first you said last, what should have been said last you said first." — "What you took so long to think out has been confuted." — "Your doctrine has been refuted. You're defeated. Go, try to save your doctrine, or disentangle yourself now if you can" — the recluse Gotama abstains from such wrangling argumentation.'"

"And there began a lang digression About the lords o' the creation."

"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."

"Whatever Sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore."

"I've heard old cunning stagers Say, 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."

"He whose will and desire in conversation is to establish his own opinion, even though what he says is true, should recognize that he is sick with the devil's disease."

"While the Hindu elaborates his argument, the Moslem sharpens his sword."

"A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow."

"Reproachful speech from either side The want of argument supplied; They rail, reviled; as often ends The 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 makes Error a fault, and truth discourtesy."

"Argument is unnecessary for an enlightened disciple. ... Argument implies a desire to win, strengthens egotism, and ties us to the belief in the idea of a self."

"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 ever Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause."

"It's hard to engage in good faith with a bad faith argument without just haemorrhaging energy."

"Abba Paul the Barber and his brother Timothy lived in Scetis. They often used to argue. So Abba Paul said, 'How long shall we go on like this?' Abba Timothy said to him, 'I suggest you take my side of the argument and in my turn I will take your side when you oppose me.' They spent the rest of their days in this practice."

"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."

"Arguments don't break chains."

"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 art When she will play with reason and discourse, And well she can persuade."

"Ignorantia non est argumentum."

"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."

"Seria risu risum, seriis discutere."

"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 frequent Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument About it and about: but evermore Came out by the same door wherein I went."

"Discors concordia."

"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 argument Similes are like songs in love: They must describe; they nothing prove."

"One single positive weighs more, You know, than negatives a score."

"Soon their crude notions with each other fought; The adverse sect denied what this had taught; And he at length the amplest triumph gain'd, Who contradicted what the last maintain'd."

"Agreed to differ."

"You can't win an argument by being right, either"

"Prof. Michael Foster has somewhere said that ‘hypothesis is the salt of science.’ Without hypothesis there is no possibility of fruitful investigation. But it is equally true that where the desire to prove a particular hypothesis is dominant, hypothesis becomes the poison of science. The Aryan race theory of Western scholars is as good an illustration of how hypothesis can be the poison of science as one can think of."

"The functional validity of a working hypothesis is not a priori certain, because often it is initially based on intuition. However, logical deductions from such a hypothesis provide expectations (so called prognoses) as to the circumstances under which certain phenomena will appear in nature. Such a postulate or working hypothesis can then be substantiated by additional observations or by experiments especially arranged to test details. The value of the hypothesis is strengthened if the observed facts fit the expectation within the limits of permissible error."

"One thinker no less brilliant than the heresiarch himself, but in the orthodox tradition, advanced a most daring hypothesis. This felicitous supposition declared that there is only one Individual, and that this indivisible Individual is every one of the separate beings in the universe, and that these beings are the instruments and masks of divinity itself."

"There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery."

"It is human nature to avoid being consumed by hypotheticals until they are staring us squarely in the face."

"I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing — to be sharp, yet open."

"Now all hypotheses, by definition, involve make-believe. Many of them...involve sort-crossing, and are therefore metaphors. The conclusion ... is to try to adopt the actual technique of Plato...Then, whether we suppose that man is a state, or that the world is a machine, or that man is a wolf, the risk of confusing the facts of one sort with those of the other will be lessened."

"The truth is, that these writings of mine were meant to protect the arguments of Parmenides against those who make fun of him and seek to show the many ridiculous and contradictory results which they suppose to follow from the affirmation of the one. My answer is addressed to the partisans of the many, whose attack I return with interest by retorting upon them that their hypothesis of the being of many, if carried out, appears to be still more ridiculous than the hypothesis of the being of one. Zeal for my master led me to write the book in the days of my youth, but some one stole the copy; and therefore I had no choice whether it should be published or not; the motive, however, of writing, was not the ambition of an elder man, but the pugnacity of a young one."

"The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it."

"As a man of scientific temper, I will not forgive them if they repeat their allegation without substantiating it. You see, the case with allegations is simple: either you prove them, or you withdraw them and offer apologies."