Quotes About Arguments

Philosophy ought to imitate the successful sciences in its methods, so far as to proceed only from tangible premises which can be subjected to careful scrutiny, and to trust rather to the multitude and variety of its arguments than to the conclusiveness to any one. Its reasoning should not form a chain which is no stronger than its weakest link, but a cable whose fibres may be ever so slender, provided they are sufficiently numerous and intimately connected. (Peirce 1992, p. 29)

Whether or not it is dangerous to read Sade is a question that easily becomes lost in a multitude of others and has never been settled except by those whose arguments are rooted in the conviction that reading leads to trouble. So it does; so it must, for reading leads nowhere but to questions.

Fallacies are "foul ways" to win arguments, yet they are winning arguments and manipulating people everyday. The mass media are filled with them. They are the bread and butter of mass political discourse, public relations, and advertising. We all at times fall prey to them. And many live and breathe them as if they were the vehicles of sacred truth. Your

People are often ready to accept a false dilemma because few feel comfortable with complexity and nuanced distinctions. They like sweeping absolutes. They want clear and simple choices. So, those skilled in manipulating people, face them with false dilemmas (one alternative of which is the one the manipulator wants them to choose, the other alternative clearly unacceptable). They present arguments in black or white form.

I didn't like having reasonable arguments thrown at me.

You've given some pretty convincing arguments, but you're still a long way from winning me over." "I haven't even really tried," he said, in a rare moment of arrogance. "When I want to, I can be very persuasive." "Yeah? Prove it." His lips moved toward mine. "I was hoping you'd say that.

people are rarely persuaded by arguments, but more often by experiences.

Addie Moore had a grandson named Jamie who was just turning six. In the early summer the trouble between his parents got worse. There were bad arguments in the kitchen and bedroom, accusations and recriminations, her tears and his shouts. They finally separated on a trial basis and she went off to California to stay with a friend, leaving Jamie with his father. He called Addie and told her what happened, that his wife had quit her job as a hairdresser and had gone out to the West Coast.

I'm also much less certain than Audrey and Ben were in their final arguments, but that's because I'm searching for the truth whereas they're just trying to win a case.

People only invoke history to ballast their arguments in the present." "Maybe

In general she had little patience for the minimalist arguments. "Isn't it the equivalent of letting the metanats run things?" she would say. "Letting might be right?

I have an amazing relationship with my wife, but sometimes there are arguments. It happens.

Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing.

It would be good for religion if many books that seem useful were destroyed. When there were not so many books and not so many arguments and disputes, religion grew more quickly than it has since.

As I say, if we bring up religion we'll have differences; we'll have arguments; and we'll never be able to get together.

Yet in practice, science and religion are like a husband and wife who after 500 years of marriage counselling still don't know each other. He still dreams about Cinderella and she keeps pining for Prince Charming, while they argue about whose turn it is to take out the rubbish.

Beware of arguments based on probability. When he was a young man, Einstein worked as a clerk in the Swiss Patent Office. What are the odds that a clerk in the same office today will be the next Einstein? It's an absurd question to pose that way (like asking the odds that a deaf person will become the next Beethoven).

Unhappy, let alone angry, religious people provide more persuasive arguments for atheism and secularism than do all the arguments of atheists.

Ultimately, all arguments against markets are arguments against anarchy. Marx understood this much, at least.

And as proof that he has delivered them to you, bring your preconceptions to bear. Bring the arguments of philosophers. Bring what you've often heard, and often said yourself; what you've read, and what you've practised.

polemics can sometimes be constructive.43 Averil Cameron notes that some polemics help sharpen arguments and consolidate knowledge.44 Polemics also tell us what is at stake for the individual or group issuing the invectives.

My leverage was that I knew that you knew my abilities and your own inabilities. That I did not mention these two facts strengthened my situation. You didn't know what I would do, but you knew what I could do. Those arguments I presented were correct, but not crucial. What was crucial was the balance of power between us at that moment.

I'm generally slow to anger, quick to forgive, and I take in information before making decisions. So no matter how controversial the decision, my general demeanour is to put on white lab coat and gloves and look at the evidence, weigh the arguments and see what makes sense.

The irrationality of disgust suggests it is unreliable as a source of moral insight. There may be good arguments against gay marriage, partial-birth abortions and human cloning, but the fact that some people find such acts to be disgusting should carry no weight.