quotations about arguments & arguing
We arg'ed the thing at breakfast, we arg'ed the thing at tea,
And the more we arg'ed the question, the more we didn't agree.
WILL CARLETON
Betsy and I Are Out
One single positive weighs more,
You know, than negatives a score.
MATTHEW PRIOR
Epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd
Nothing firms up a friendship like a good-natured argument.
LEMONY SNICKET
Who Could That Be at This Hour?
But yet beware of councils when too full;
Number makes long disputes.
JOHN DENHAM
Of Prudence
Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be--or to be indistinguishable from--self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.
NEAL STEPHENSON
Cryptonomicon
When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Works
For they are yet but ear-kissing arguments.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life of Samuel Johnson
This is no time nor fitting place to mar
The mirthful meeting with a wordy war.
LORD BYRON
Lara
Who over-refines his argument brings himself to grief.
PETRARCH
To Laura in Life
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.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Hudibras
Data levels all arguments.
ANTHONY W. RICHARDSON
Full-Scale
Much may be said on both sides.
HENRY FIELDING
Covent Garden Tragedy
It doesn't matter if I know of what I speak
The arguer's strong if the argument's weak
It's persistance, insistence, and a nice healthy winning streak
I got the last word in, I'm happy to announce
I got the last word in and that's all that counts
SICKO
Last Word
A keen wit stabs harder than a finely honed argument.
RACHEL HARTMAN
Tess of the Road
It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.
WILLIAM PENN
Fruits of Solitude