![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
. . . see: "DEBATE" see: "DIFFERENCE" see: "DISAGREEMENT" see: "QUARRELS" see: "REASON" see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links Much might be said on both sides. --Joseph Addison (16721719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. _The Spectator_ # 122 [20 July 1711] We ought in fairness to fight our case with no help beyond the bare facts: nothing, therefore, should matter except the proof of these facts. --Aristotle (384322 B.C.) Greek philosopher. _Rhetoric_ 3.1 Vilify, Vilify! Some of it will always stick. --Pierre de Beaumarchais (17321799) French playwright and adventurer. Attributed in "Life" (mag.) [7 June 1968]. In three moments a laborer will remove an obstructing rock, but three moons will pass without two wise men agreeing on the meaning of a vowel. --Ernest Bramah [Earnest Bramah Smith] (18681942) British author. "A Celestial Laureate" in _The Living Age_ [12 April 1919] Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. --James Burgh (17141775) Scottish author. _The Dignity of Human Nature_ [1754] 'Twas blow for blow, disputing inch by inch, For one would not retreat, nor t'other flinch. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (17881824) English Romantic poet and satirist. _Don Juan_, canto VIII, st. 77 [18181824] There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argumentand that is to avoid it. --Dale Carnegie (18881955) American writer and lecturer. _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ [1936] I do not love strife, because I have always found that in the end each remains of the same opinion. --Catherine the Great (17291796) Empress of Russia fron 17621796. Quoted in Katherine Anthony _Catherine the Great_ [1926] People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. --G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (18741936) English essayist, novelist, and poet. "The New Generations and Morality" in _The Illustrated London News_ [9 March 1929]. Passionate expression and vehement assertion are no arguments, unless it be of the weakness of the cause that is defended by them, or of the man that defends it. --William Chillingworth (16021644) English theologian. Attributed in Charles Noel Douglas _Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical_, p. 117 [1917] - When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CLXXXIII [1821 ed.] The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an *empty* head than the most superficial declamation, as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a *vacuum*. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, "Preface" [1821 ed.] - And the combat ceased, for want of combatants. --Pierre Corneille (16061684) French dramatist. _Le Cid_, IV, ii [1636] Let sleeping dogs liewho wants to rouse 'em? --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, ch. 39 [1850] I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension. --Benjamin Disraeli (18041881) British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 18741880]. Quoted in Wilfrid Meynell _Benjamin Disraeli: An Unconventional Biography_ [1903]. How often could things be remedied by a word. How often is it left unspoken. --Norman Douglas (18681952) Austrian-born British novelist and essayist. _An Almanac_ [1945] - Better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. --John Dryden (16311700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. Epistle XIII "To My Honored Kinsman, John Dryden of Chesterton" A knock-down argument. --John Dryden (16311700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. _Amphitryon_, I, i, [1690] - Fear not those who argue but those who dodge. --Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (18301916) Austrian writer. _Aphorisms_ [1905] - It is only when they cannot answer your reasons that they wish to knock you down. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "The Assault upon Mr. Sumner" (speech), Town Hall, Concord, Massachusetts [26 May 1856]. Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. 1838 entry in vol. 5 of _Journals_ [pub. in 10 vols., 19101914]. - If a donkey bray at you, don't bray at him. --English proverb Where two discourse, if the one's anger rise, The man who lets the contest fall is wise. --Euripides (485?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _Protesilaus_, fragment 656 - [...] But the gingham dog and calico cat Wallowed this way and tumbled that, Employing every tooth and claw In the awfullest way you ever saw- And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew! [...] Next morning where the two had sat They found no trace of the dog or cat; And some folks think unto this day That burglars stole that pair away! But the truth about the cat and pup Is this: they ate each other up! Now what do you really think of that! --Eugene Field (18501895) American journalist and writer of children's verse. "The Duel" - - In a debate, rather pull to pieces the argument of thy antagonists than offer him any of thy own; for thus thou wilt fight him in his own country. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Introductio ad Prudentiam_ [1731] He that scattereth thorns must not go barefoot. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] - I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect. --Edward Gibbon (17371794) English historian. Attributed in "The Fra" (mag.) [May 1913]. There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it. --Oliver Goldsmith (17281774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. In James Boswell _Life of Johnson_ [1791] "26 October 1769". ^ Samuel Goldwyn (18821974) American film producer. Goldwyn was not given to flights of (uncalculated) sentiment. He and some colleagues, visiting him at his home, were once engaged in a bitter dispute over a script. One of them walked over to the window looking out on Goldwyn's luxurious lawn. He stood there for a moment, then called out to the others, 'Come look. Here we are fighting, and this marvelous, peaceful event is taking place in nature right under our noses. We should be ashamed of ourselves.' The others, Goldwyn last, trooped over. Parading across the lawn were a mother quail and her five little chicks. They stood there for a short time; then the silence was broken by the unappeasable Goldwyn: 'They don't belong here.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading. --Gorgias of Leontini (c. 483 B.C.375 B.C.) Greek sophist and rhetorician. Attributed in Kate Louise Roberts _Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 42 [1922]. No matter what side of the argument you are on,you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other. --attributed to Jascha Heifetz (19011987) Russian-born American violinist. - Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] Another ingredient for a happy marriage: Budget the luxuries first. And still another: See to it that she has her own desk, then keep your hands off it! And another, in a family argument, if it turns out you are right, apologize at once! --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. _Time Enough for Love_ [1973] - It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, when the wolf remains of a different opinion. --William Ralph Inge (18601954) English writer and Dean of St. Paul's [19111934]. _Outspoken Essays: First Series_ [1919] "Patriotism" - An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to John Taylor [1 June 1798]. In stating prudential rules for our government in society, I must not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one or two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph [24 November 1808]. Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. In _Master Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson_ (Selected by Benjamin S. Catchings), p. 82 [1907]. - - A man heated in talk, and eager of victory, takes advantage of the mistakes or ignorance of his adversary, lays hold of concessions to which he has no right, and urges proofs likely to prevail on his opponent, though he knows himself that they have no force. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Essay in _The Adventurer_, #85 [28 August 1753]. Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument. --attributed to Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. - Though I've belted you and flayed you, By the livin' Gawd that made you, You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din! --Rudyard Kipling (18651936) English writer and poet. "Gunga Din" st. 5, [1892] Lower your voice and strengthen your argument. --Lebanese proverb The very man who has argued you down, will sometimes be found, years later, to have been influenced by what you said. --C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (18981963) British scholar and novelist. _Reflections on the Psalms _ [1964] Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and loss of self control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [18611865]. In a letter to J.M. Cutts [26 October 1863]. - There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. "Democracy", Address at Town Hall, Birmingham, England [6 October 1884]. Some people advise us to put on the brakes, as if the movement of which we are conscious were that of a railway train running down an incline. But a metaphor is no argument, though it be sometimes the gunpowder to drive one home and imbed it in the memory. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. "Democracy", Address at Town Hall, Birmingham, England [6 October 1884]. - I never mind my wife having the last word. In fact, I'm delighted when she gets to it. --Walter Matthau (19202000) American actor. Attributed in Geoff Tibballs _The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners_ [2004]. It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. --attributed in William G. McAdoo (18631941) American senator from California [19331938]. ^^ Amedeo Modigliani (18841920) Italian painter and sculptor: Modigliani's admiration of Utrillo was reciprocated. On the occasion of their first meeting, they began by paying each other extravagant compliments. 'You are the world's greatest painter,' said one. 'No, *you* are the world's greatest painter,' said the other. 'I forbid you to contradict me.' 'I forbid you to forbid me.' The argument became heated. 'If you say that again, I'll hit you.' 'You are the greatest--' and they fell to blows. Later, they made up over several bottles of wine at a nearby bistro. As they went out into the street, one said, 'You are the world's greatest painter.' 'No, you are.' And so the fight broke out again, until both combatants were down in the gutter, where they went to sleep. In the early dawn they woke up to discover that they had been robbed. _Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000] ^^ He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. --Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (15331592) French moralist and essayist. Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 26 [1891]. To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you're wrong, admit it; Whenever you're right, shut up. --Ogden Nash (19021971) American writer of humorous poetry. "A Word to Husbands" in _Marriage Lines_ [1964]. Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become one himself. When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks back into you. --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (18441900) German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture. _Beyond Good and Evil_, pt. 4 [1885-1886] Agreeing to differ. [Lat., Discors concordia.] --Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.18 A.D.) Roman poet. "Metamorphoses" I. 433 To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. --Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (17371809) English-American writer and political pamphleteer. _Age of Reason_ [1794] - Who can refute a sneer? --William Paley (17431805) English theologian and philosopher. _Principles of Moral and Politcal Philosophy_ [1785] The fair way of conducting a dispute is to exhibit, one by one, the arguments of your opponent, and, with each argument, the precise and specific answer you are able to give it. --William Paley (17431805) English theologian and philosopher. Quoted in G.W. Meadley _Memoirs of William Paley_ [1809]. - An eagerness and zeal for dispute on every subject, and with every one, shows great self-sufficiency, that never-failing sign of great self-ignorance. --William Pitt, the Elder, also called (from 1766) 1st Earl of Chatham (17081778) British statesman, twice virtual prime minister [17561761, 17661768]. Quoted in William Stanhope Taylor & Captain John Henry Pringle (eds.) _Correspondence of William Pitt_, vol 4 of 4 [1840]. You will stir up the hornets. --Titus Maccius Plautus (254184 BC) Roman comic dramatist. _Amphitruo_, act II, 2 When two discourse, if the one's anger rise, The man who lets the contest fall is wise. --Plutarch (A.D. 46?119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. Attributed in Adam Woolιver (comp.) _Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor_, p. 71 [3rd ed. 1878]. - When much dispute has past, We find our tenets just the same at last. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. _Moral Essays_, epis. III, l. 15 [1731-1735] What Tully said of war may be applied to disputing: 'It should be always so managed as to remember that the only true end of it is peace.' But generally true disputants are like true sportsmen,their whole delight is in the pursuit; and the disputant no more cares for the truth than the sportsman for the hare. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Edge-Tools of Speech_, p. 82 [1886]. - In excessive altercation, truth is lost. --Publilius Syrus (8543 B.C.) Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave. _Maxims_ The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence. --Ayn Rand (19051982) Russian-born American writer. _The Virtue of Selfishness_ [1964] It's hard for a fellow to keep a chip on his shoulder if you allow him to take a bow. --attributed to Billy Rose (18991966) American lyricist and producer. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. --Bertrand Russell (18721970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. _An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish_ [1943] A last trick is to become personal, insulting, rude, as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand, and that you are going to come off worst. It consists in passing from the subject of dispute, as from a lost game, to the disputant himself, and in some way attacking his person. It may be called the _argumentum ad personam_, to distinguish it from the _argumentum ad hominem_, which passes from the objective discussion of the subject pure and simple to the statements or admissions which your opponent has made in regard to it. But in becoming personal you leave the subject altogether, and turn your attack to his person, by remarks of an offensive and spiteful character. It is an appeal from the virtues of the intellect to the virtues of the body, or to mere animalism. This is a very popular trick, because every one is able to carry it into effect; and so it is of frequent application. --Arthur Schopenhauer (17881860) German philosopher. "The Art of Controversy" tr. by T. Bailey Saunders [1896] To make another person hold his tongue, be you first silent. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. 65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. Quoted in D. E. MacDonnel _A Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 8 [5th ed., 1809]. - The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii [15961598] He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Love's Labour's Lost_, V, i [1598] Fluellen: If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating coxcomb, in your own conscience now? --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Henry V_, IV, i [15981599] I understand a fury in your words, But not the words. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Othello_, IV, ii [16041605] Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Henry VIII_, I, i [1613] - If thou continuest to take delight in idle argumentation thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but will never know how to live with men. --Socrates (470?399 B.C.) Greek philosopher. Quoted in _The Works, Literary, Moral and Medical, of Thomas Percival_vol. 2, p. 62 [2 vols., 1807] - The truth is always the strongest argument. --Sophocles (496?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _Phaedra_, Frag. 737 No honest man will argue on every side. --attributed to Sophocles (496?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. - It would be almost unbelievable, if history did not record the tragic fact that men have gone to war and cut each other's throat because they could not agree as to what was to become of them after their throats were cut. --Walter Parker Stacy (18841951) American jurist, quoted in Sam J. Ervin, Jr., _Humor of a Country Lawyer_ [1983] Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation. --Jonathan Swift (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. "Hints on Good Manners" Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions. --Booth Tarkington (18691946) American novelist and dramatist. _Looking Forward to the Great Adventure_ [1926] Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Christian Science_, ch. V [1907] Our errors and our controversies, in the sphere of morality, arise sometimes from looking on men as though they could be altogether bad, or altogether good. --attributed to Marquis de Vauvenargues (17151747) French moralist and essayist. A long dispute means both parties are wrong. --attributed to Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (16941778) French writer and philosopher. A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of his neighbors. Every one of his opinions appears to him written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry that his neighbors do not see it in the same light. He is tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low and dark understandings because they do not believe what he does. --Isaac Watts (16741748) English hymn writer. _The Improvement of the Mind_, ch. 1 [1741] I am not arguing with you I am telling you. --James Whistler (18341903) American artist. _The Gentle Art of Making Enemies_ "A Proposal" [1890] - If you spend all of your time arguing with people who are nuts, you'll be exhausted and the nuts will still be nuts. --"Dilbert", Scott Adams (b. 1957) - Discussion is an exchange of intelligence; argument is an exchange of ignorance. --anon. Never argue with a fool people might not know the difference. --anon. Never wrestle with a pig. You only get dirty and the pig enjoys it. --anon. ----- ballyhoo noun (plural bal·ly·hoos) 1. sensational advertising: sensational, loud, or sustained advertising 2. uproar: a noisy argument or disturbance argument/debate descant [DES-kant], (noun) To comment freely; to discourse at length. Ex.: When they start on one of their polarised descants, whether on state education, water rates, crime, the BBC or whatever, they sound like a bumble bee and a wasp fighting in a jam jar. --Gillian Reynolds, "The biggest things to hit radio," "Daily Telegraph" [14 May 1999] donnybrook [DON-ee-brook], noun: 1. A brawl; a free-for-all. 2. A heated quarrel or dispute. Ex.: "Wine and talk flow freely, so much so that the meal ends with a Rooney family donnybrook over, typically enough, religion and politics." --Howard Frank Mosher, "24 Hours in Due East, S.C.," New York Times, April 7, 1991 A donnybrook is so called after Donnybrook, Ireland, a suburb of Dublin that once held an annual fair known for its brawls. eristic [e-RIS-tik] adjective: 1. Pertaining to controversy or disputation; controversial. 2. Of argument for the sole purpose of winning, regardless of the reason. noun: 1. Argument for the sole purpose of winning, regardless of the reason. 2. The art of disputation. implacable [im-PLAK-uh-bull], adjective: Not placable; not to be appeased; incapable of being pacified; inexorable; as, an implacable foe. impugn [im-PYOON], transitive verb: To attack by words or arguments; to call in question; to make insinuations against; to oppose or challenge as false; to gainsay. Synonyms: challenge, deny, dispute, gainsay. irrefragable [ih-REF-ruh-guh-buhl], adjective: Impossible to refute; incontestable; undeniable; as, an irrefragable argument; irrefragable evidence. quibble (verb) ['kwi-bl] To raise petty questions, to hesitate or argue over trivial issues, to cavil. salient (adj.) ['sey-li-κnt] Leaping or jumping, saltatorial, as salient animals like frogs and kangaroos; jumping or, standing out, prominent, as a salient ledge or a salient point in an argument. tendentious (adjective) [ten-'den-chκs] Exhibiting a strong tendency or point of view, overbearingly didactic or partisan. Not to be confused with "tendential" which means simply "relating to a tendency." tenebrific (adj.) [te-nκ-'bri-fik] Causing darkness, darkening, obscuring, obfuscating end page | ABILITY - ABUSE | ACADEMY AWARDS - ACCUSATION | ACHIEVEMENT - ACQUAINTANCE | ACTION/S | ACTORS / ACTING | ACTUARIES - ADVERSARIES | ADVERSITY - ADVERTISING | ADVICE | AFFAIRS - AFGHANISTAN | AGE | AGNOSTICS - AIRPLANES | ALCOHOL | ALIBI - AMBITION | AMERICA PAGE 1 (A-M) | AMERICA PAGE 2 (N-Z) | AMERICANS | AMERICAN INDIANS | AMERICAN REVOLUTION | AMUSEMENT - ANCESTORS | ANGER | ANIMAL RIGHTS - ANIMALS | ANIMOSITIES - APATHY | APOLOGY & APPEARANCE | APPEASEMENT | APPLAUSE - APRIL | ARCHAEOLOGISTS - ARCHITECTURE | ARGUMENT | ARISTOCRACY - ART | ASHAMED - ASTROLOGY | ATHEISM | ATOM BOMB - ATTRACTION | AUSTRALIA | AUTHORITY - AUTOMOBILES | AUTUMN - AWARENESS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
||
