quotations about arguments & arguing
Brief and bitter the debate.
ROBERT BROWNING
Hervé Riel
So high at last the contest rose,
From words they almost came to blows.
JAMES MERRICK
The Chameleon
We should not investigate facts by the light of arguments, but arguments by the light of facts.
MYSON
attributed, Lives of Eminent Philosophers
I am not arguing with you--I am telling you.
J. MCNEILL WHISTLER
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
One single positive weighs more,
You know, than negatives a score.
MATTHEW PRIOR
Epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Works
For they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
This is no time nor fitting place to mar
The mirthful meeting with a wordy war.
LORD BYRON
Lara
I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
Who over-refines his argument brings himself to grief.
PETRARCH
To Laura in Life
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
Data levels all arguments.
ANTHONY W. RICHARDSON
Full-Scale
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
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
It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude