Quotes About Argument

Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.

Evolutionary biology is imperialistic, overtaking entire fields of endeavor simply by attaching the prefix bio – or neuro -- to their names: bioethics, no comics, even, God help us, neurotheology. Its logic is deployed against helpless laymen as a bully's truncheon or an argument stopper.

One of the reasons we invented continuous prose was to lay out an argument, piling points on top of each other, weighing one view against another, even to invite the reader to look back at something earlier or later in a book.

In Don Mills in the Sixties, nothing comes close to the humiliation of losing an argument. In our weird little creative circle, no one cares who has faster fists, but to lose an argument suggests inferior intelligence.

If you take a position under the Constitution that is against the majority view, you have to explain it well enough that maybe you can persuade some of that majority to agree with you.

The practice of narrative and argument does not lead to invention, but it compels a certain coherence of thought.

I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.

My favorite comedians are just presenting an argument, and they're doing it in a funny way.

I don't buy the argument that there can't be a successful independent candidacy for the presidency of the United States. People who say, 'It can't happen,' are many of the same people who said we'd never elect an African American.

People have extreme beliefs about whether it is right for humans to tamper with embryos in any way at all. Sometimes the values discussion gets conflated with the science discussion. We shouldn't pretend we're having an argument about science when we're having an argument about values.

It is pretty hard to find the right result to a controversial issue.

Whenever there has been a debate on the national stage, nobody has had to go looking to find me. I've been there. Always making the argument for free markets, first principles, and limited government.

Ideas must always be subjected to debate and challenge.

I'm a big believer in debate and difference of opinion.

By the rules of debate, if you lose your cool, you've lost the game.

A debate is a very specific kind of performance.

I was on the debate team.

I believe in reasoned debate.

My wife and I often have debates about who studied in a better school and when I list KVM alumni, she kind of loses the argument.

If we're going to have debates, let's have real debates.

I like debating policy.

You know, men would much rather run away than talk about stuff, and my default setting has always been, 'If you have an argument, walk out the door.'

Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.

When the policy is controversial, you have to go out and defend it.