quotations about arguments & arguing
We arg'ed the thing at breakfast, we arg'ed the thing at tea,
And the more we arg'ed the question, the more we didn't agree.
WILL CARLETON
Betsy and I Are Out
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
Altogether they puzzle me quite,
They all seem wrong and they all seem right.
ROBERT BUCHANAN
Fine Weather on the Digentia
But yet beware of councils when too full;
Number makes long disputes.
JOHN DENHAM
Of Prudence
Be calm in arguing: for fierceness makes
Error a fault and truth discourtesy....
Calmness is a great advantage: he that lets
Another chafe, may warm him at his fire.
GEORGE HERBERT
The Church-Porch
It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude
Data levels all arguments.
ANTHONY W. RICHARDSON
Full-Scale
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
Who over-refines his argument brings himself to grief.
PETRARCH
To Laura in Life
Though we cannot out-vote them, we will out-argue them.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
So high at last the contest rose,
From words they almost came to blows.
JAMES MERRICK
The Chameleon
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
Argument, of course, is the whole point of history. Disagreement; my word against yours; this evidence against that. If there were such a thing as absolute truth the debate would lose its lustre. I, for one, would no longer be interested.
PENELOPE LIVELY
Moon Tiger
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
The tree of knowledge blasted by dispute,
Produces saples leaves instead of fruit.
JOHN DENHAM
Progress of Learning