Quotations on argument

Never contend with one that is foolish, proud, positive, testy, or with a superior, or a clown, in matter of argument.
-Thomas Fuller
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as in books it is generally the worst sort of reading.
-Jonathan Swift
The purely agitational attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.
-Jawaharlal Nehru
People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.
-Gilbert K. Chesterton
A long dispute means both parties are wrong.
-Voltaire
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
-Ed Howe
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
-Michel de Montaigne
In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing.
-Matthew Prior
Debate is the death of conversation.
-Emil Ludwig
Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.
-Louis D. Brandeis
The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right.
-Lord Hailsham
When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same as last.
-Alexander Pope
Weak arguments are often thrust before my path; but although they are most unsubstantial, it is not easy to destroy them. There is not a more difficult feat known than to cut through a cushion with a sword.
-Richard Whately
Agitation is the atmosphere of the brains.
-Wendell Phillips
Any fact is better established by two or three good testimonies than by a thousand arguments.
-Nathaniel Emmons
There are two sides to every argument, unless a person is personally involved, in which case there is only one.
-unknown
People are usually more convinced by reasons they discover themselves than by those found by others.
-unknown