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It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.
Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.
Debate is the death of conversation.
Debate is the death of conversation.
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
'Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch,
For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch.
'Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch,
For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch.
A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.
A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.
When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid read more
When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid -- in which case all comment is superfluous -- or it is something formidable, the very crux of the problem.
Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men
above ourselves; but to confirm and establish read more
Where we desire to be informed 'tis good to contest with men
above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis
best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent
spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves
an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.
He'd undertake to prove, by force
Of argument, a man's no horse.
He'd prove a buzzard is read more
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.