quotations about arguments & arguing
A dispute begun in jest ... is continued by the desire of conquest, till vanity kindles into rage, and opposition rankles into enmity.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Idler, No. 23
Nothing firms up a friendship like a good-natured argument.
LEMONY SNICKET
Who Could That Be at This Hour?
Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be--or to be indistinguishable from--self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.
NEAL STEPHENSON
Cryptonomicon
One single positive weighs more,
You know, than negatives a score.
MATTHEW PRIOR
Epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd
But yet beware of councils when too full;
Number makes long disputes.
JOHN DENHAM
Of Prudence
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
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Works
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
Much may be said on both sides.
HENRY FIELDING
Covent Garden Tragedy
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
It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
A keen wit stabs harder than a finely honed argument.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Tess of the Road