The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
In a false quarrel there is no true valor.
The most important tactic in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without an embarrassing loss of face.
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
A long dispute means that both parties are wrong
Why prove to a man he is wrong? Is that going to make him like you? Why not let him save face? He didn't ask for your opinion. He didn't want it. Why argue with him? You can't win an argument, because if you lose, you lose it; and if you win it, you lose it. Why? You will feel fine. But what about him? You have made him feel inferior, you hurt his pride, insult his intelligence, his judgment, and his self-respect, and he'll resent your triumph. That will make him strike back, but it will never make him want to change his mind. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.
Two dogs strive for a bone and the third one runs off with it.
Soft words win hard hearts.
I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.
When a subject is highly controversial... one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker.
How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.
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.
All great ideas are controversial, or have been at one time.
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.
The dust of controversy is merely the falsehood flying off.
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