""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."