George Carlin - Richard Dawkins TV - David Marks & Richard Kammann - William Gladstone - William H Newton-Smith - Christopher Hitchens - 12 Angry Men 1957 - Carl Sagan TV - Elbert Hubbard - John Milton - Leonardo da Vinci - R A Fisher - David Hume - William Shakespeare - Matthew 5:23-25 - Margaret Thatcher - Samuel Butler - Oscar Wilde - Elbert Hubbard - Michel de Montaigne - Friedrich Nietzsche - George Eliot - Lyndon B Johnson - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine TV - The Office US TV - Che Guevara - Noam Chomsky - Monty Python’s Flying Circus TV - Best of Enemies 2015 - Humphrey Bogart - Bill Murray -
God excuse: the last refuge of man with no answers and no argument – it came from God! George Carlin
It’s funny the way one uses words like insult and offence but only for religion ... You don’t have to feel insulted or offended unless of course you haven’t got an argument in reply. Professor Richard Dawkins, interview Newstalk 20th September 2009
Once a belief or expectation is found, especially one that resolves uncomfortable uncertainty, it biases the observer to notice new information that confirms the belief, and to discount evidence to the contrary. This self-perpetuating mechanism consolidates the original error and builds up an overconfidence in which the arguments of opponents are seen as too fragmentary to undo the adopted belief. David Marks & Richard Kammann, Psychology of the Psychic
Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic. William E Gladstone
Logic, it is often said, is the study of valid arguments. It is a systematic attempt to distinguish valid arguments from invalid arguments. William H Newton-Smith, Logic
Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you. Christopher Hitchens
I’d rather have an argument than be bored. Christopher Hitchens
There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument. Christopher Hitchens
In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. Carl Sagan, address CSICOP conference 1987; cited J Poling ‘Do Science and the Bible Conflict?’
There are no sacred truths. All assumptions must be critically examined. Arguments from authority are worthless. Professor Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Who Speaks for Earth? PBS 1980
A friendly little argument. 12 Angry Men 1957 starring Henry Fonda & Lee J Cobb & E G Marshall & Martin Balsam & Jack Warden & John Fiedler & Jack Klugman & Edward Binns & Joseph Sweeney & Ed Begley & George Voskovec & Robert Webber et al, director Sidney Lumet, juror to Clerk of the Court
If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost – you can still call him vile names. Elbert Hubbard
Love-quarrels oft in pleasing concord end. John Milton, Samson Agonistes l1008, 1671
There’s nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view I hold dear. Daniel C Dennett
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence, he is just using his memory. Leonardo da Vinci
The best causes tend to attract to their support the worst arguments. R A Fisher, 1890-1962
How many frivolous quarrels and disgusts are there, which people of common prudence endeavour to forget, when they lie under the necessity of passing their lives together; but which would soon inflame into the most deadly hatred, were they pursued to the utmost, under the prospect of an easy separation? David Hume, Essays: Moral and Political 1741-2
And the best quarrels in the heat are cursed
By those that feel their sharpness. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear V iii 55-56, Edmund
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Matthew 5:23-25
I love argument. I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me. That’s not their job. Margaret Thatcher
Neither irony or sarcasm is argument. Samuel Butler
Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion. Oscar Wilde
Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing. Oscar Wilde
If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names. Elbert Hubbard
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. Michel de Montaigne
The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments. Friedrich Nietzsche
You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable. George Eliot
What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t, you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you. Lyndon B Johnson
467291: The Bajoran government has asked me to mediate a disagreement between two rival factions. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s1e14: The Storyteller s1e14
All this arguing reminds me of a very funny story. The Office US s7e11: Classy Christmas II, Michael, NBC 2011
Silence is argument carried out by other means. Che Guevara
You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it. Noam Chomsky
Do you want to have the full argument or were you thinking of taking the course? Monty Python’s Flying Circus s3e3: The Money Programme, BBC 1972
During the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1968 ABC News hired the conservative William F Buckley and the liberal Gore Vidal for ten nightly debates on national television. Best of Enemies ***** 2015
ABC was the third of the three networks … ABC needed something provocative, a media event. ibid. observer
Bill Buckley was the first modern conservative intellectual to see that ideological debates were cultural debates, and what he did was to put conservatism on the march: and that’s the creation of the movement we have today. ibid. Sam Tanenhaus, Buckley’s biographer
National Review is the most influential magazine of our time. Why? The magazine attached to a movement. ibid.
For Buckley, Vidal was the devil. He represented everything that was going to moral hell, that was degenerative about the country. ibid. Fred Kaplan, Vidal’s biographer
Gore Vidal is a whore of debate when it comes to values of our country and of historical forces. The man is brilliant. And the man is fun to watch. But there is always a residue in my opinion when I watch him of nausea. ibid. Reid Buckley
I knew Buckley would have done no research. ibid. Vidal