Quotessence
Home / Topics / Argument Quotes

Argument Quotes

Browse 2888 quotes about Argument.

Related topics

PeopleIfsThinkingMenWayKnowsReasonBelieveWantShouldWorldDoeFactsMindMadeMayArguingTryingSidesWinningWellsHas BeensGivingNeedsIdeasLongBeliefYearsOpinionMeanKindPoliticalSeemsUsedMatterPersonsAtheismFirstsHumansUseEvidenceWarHeartEndsCausesFeelsLittlesArtCasesBookSometimesConclusionFightingLooksRealReligionSaidWritingChildrenMoralForceProblemTwoViewsWould BeDiscussionShowsFeelingsMightProveSupportAnswersFormStillsIntellectualI CanImportantLastsChristianDebateDifferentLawDonePhilosophicalGovernmentIssuesLogicRationalScienceConflictCountryStatesCoursesDifficultEffectsHardWholeCarePersuasiveProofmore

Argument Quotes

“Bertrand Russell used to employ the method of "evidence against interest"; in other words of deciding that a critique of capital punishment, say, carried more weight if it came from a prison governor. (My friend John O'Sullivan puts it like this: If the pope says he believes in God, he's only doing his job; if he says he doesn't believe in God, he may be on to something.)”

IfsBelieveMayJobsUsedInterestEvidenceMy FriendsArgumentWeightMethodPrisonPunishmentBelieve In GodGovernorsPopeCritiqueCapital PunishmentInterest In Others
Author:Christopher Hitchens
Create image

“There are important arguments to be made about the relative merits of an hereditary or an elected head of state: but not at the level of the human frailties of particular monarchs or presidents. No one seriously contends that the American presidency should be abolished because Bill Clinton is a self-confessed adulterer. So why should the abolition of the British monarchy be contemplated because the same is true of Prince Charles?”

ShouldHumansMadeImportantSelfStatesPresidentLevelsParticularArgumentBillsClintonBritishMeritRelativePresidencyMonarchyAbolitionMonarchsFrailtyBritish HistoryHereditaryHead Of StateHuman FrailtiesBritish Monarchy
Book:History in Our Time
Create image

“The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.”

IfsMadeSaidSometimesReasonScienceOrderPrinciplesOughtIllusionDeserveArgumentClaimsConvictionArguingRationalConsistentIrrationalArbitrary
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“All things considered, I can see no reason to adopt the afterlife hypothesis. I am sure I shall remain in a minority for a long time to come, especially among experiencers, but for me the evidence and the arguments are overwhelming ... We are biological organisms, evolved in fascinating ways for no purpose at all and with no end in mind. We are simply here and this is how it is. I have no self and "I" own nothing. There is no one to die. There is just this moment, and now this, and now this.”

WayMindLongI CanEndsSelfReasonMomentsPurposeDiesAtheismLong TimeEvidenceArgumentAll ThingsPositive AtheismMinoritiesFascinatingNo ReasonOverwhelmingAfterlifeOrganismsHypothesis
Author:Susan Blackmore
Create image

“In a discussion of this kind our interest should be centered not on the weight of the authority but on the weight of the argument. Indeed the authority of those who set out to teach is often an impediment to those who wish to learn. They cease to use their own judgment and regard as gospel whatever is put forward by their chosen teacher.”

ShouldKindUseWishInterestTeachTeacherAtheismAuthorityJudgmentArgumentWeightRegardPositive AtheismCeaseChosenDiscussionImpediments
Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero
Create image

“Highly technical philosophical arguments of the sort many philosophers favor are absent here. That is because I have a prior problem to deal with. I have learned that arguments, no matter how watertight, often fall on deaf ears. I am myself the author of arguments that I consider rigorous and unanswerable but that are often not such much rebutted or even dismissed as simply ignored.”

MatterProblemFallDealsAtheismArgumentEarsPhilosophicalPhilosopherFavorsI Have LearnedIgnoredDeafAbsentDeaf Ears
Book:Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
Create image

“Pascal makes no attempt in this most famous argument to show that his Roman Catholicism is true or probably true. The reasons which he suggests for making the recommended bet on his particular faith are reasons in the sense of motives rather than reasons in the sense of grounds. Conceding, if only for the sake of the present argument, that we can have no knowledge here, Pascal tries to justify as prudent a policy of systematic self-persuasion, rather than to provide grounds for thinking that the beliefs recommended are actually true.”

IfsThinkingTryingSelfReasonShowsBeliefAtheismPolicyParticularArgumentSakePositive AtheismMotiveJustifyCatholicismPersuasionFlewSystematicPrudentRoman CatholicPascal
Author:Antony Flew
Create image

“The argument that the literal story of Genesis can qualify as science collapses on three major grounds: the creationists' need to invoke miracles in order to compress the events of the earth's history into the biblical span of a few thousand years; their unwillingness to abandon claims clearly disproved, including the assertion that all fossils are products of Noah's flood; and their reliance upon distortion, misquote, half-quote, and citation out of context to characterize the ideas of their opponents.”

NeedsYearsIdeasStoriesEarthReligionOrderThreeHalfAtheismEventsProductsThousandMajorsArgumentMiracleClaimsIncludingOpponentsAbandonCollapseBiblicalFloodThousand YearsFossilsRelianceLiteralAssertionGenesisDistortionInvokeOf ContextCitations
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“The basic formulation, or bare-bones mechanics, of natural selection is a disarmingly simple argument, based on three undeniable facts (overproduction of offspring, variation, and heritability) and one syllogistic inference (natural selection, or the claim that organisms enjoying differential reproductive success will, on average, be those variants that are fortuitously better adapted to changing local environments, and that these variants will then pass their favored traits to offspring by inheritance).”

FactsThreeEnjoyNaturalSimpleEnvironmentAtheismArgumentClaimsAverageBonesLocalsTraitsOrganismsMechanicSelectionInheritanceVariationAdaptedNatural SelectionOffspringInference
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Create image

“Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument ... which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations. I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument ... which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. For so long, I presume, will the accounts of miracles and prodigies be found in all history, sacred and profane.”

IfsWorldKindLongFoundSilenceWiseAtheismArgumentAccountsMiracleSacredEndurePositive AtheismChecksAll KindsDelusionBigotryArrogantSuperstitionsEverlastingConvenientSuperstitiousProfaneProdigiesMost ArrogantSolicitation
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
Create image

“It's easy to sell good news like this, and the authors confidently rely on classic fallacious arguments. They argue by declaration, which is what makes the books so amusing. In matter-of-fact, authoritative tones, the authors tell us how plants and human beings exchange energy - or they describe what angels look like, whether or how they're sexed, how they communicate with human beings, and how they differ from ghosts. Readers might be expected to wonder, How do they know?”

KnowsHumansLooksBookMatterFactsMightEnergyEasyHuman BeingsWonderAtheismReaderNewsAngelArgumentSellsPlantCommunicatePositive AtheismExpectedArguingGhostClassicToneRelyDeclarationGood NewsAmusingMatter Of Fact
Author:Wendy Kaminer
Create image

“The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into the magic aura are not dealt with rationally but by a specific type of pseudo-reasoning. Absurdities and contradictions are made acceptable by specious rationalizations.”

MindKindMadeBeliefMagicAtheismTypeArgumentPositive AtheismDefenseReasoningUnconsciousContradictionAcceptableAbsurdityPenetrateAurasPseudo
Author:Arthur Koestler
Create image

“The arguments for immortality, weak when you take them one by one, are no more cogent when you take them together... For my part, I cannot see how consciousness can persist when its physical basis has been destroyed, and I am too sure of the interconnection of my body and my mind to think that any survival of my my consciousness apart from my body would be in any sense a survival of myself.”

ThinkingMindHas BeensBodyWould BeTogetherConsciousnessAtheismSurvivalArgumentWeakBasesDestroyedImmortalityPersistInterconnection
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
Create image

“A willingness to engage in the give and take of argument displays a commitment to cognitive egalitarianism - the proposition that all people should be treated as intellectual equals, and that no individual can legitimately claim a privileged immunity from the burden of proof.”

PeopleGivingShouldIndividualAtheismIntellectualCommitmentArgumentClaimsBurdenPositive AtheismProofTreatedWillingnessDisplayPrivilegedPropositionsCognitiveImmunityGive And TakeEgalitarianismBurden Of Proof
Book:Why Atheism?
Create image

“The argument from design stands or falls on whether it can be demonstrated that some aspect of the universe such as its origin or biological life could not have come about naturally. The burden of proof is ... on the supernaturalist to demonstrate that something from outside nature must be introduced to explain the data.”

FallUniverseAtheismDesignAspectArgumentBurdenPositive AtheismProofDataBurden Of Proof
Book:Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe
Create image

“Even though their arguments did not invoke religion, I think we all know what's behind these arguments. They're trying to protect religious beliefs from contradiction by science. They used to do it by prohibiting teachers from teaching evolution at all; then they wanted to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory; now they want the supposed "weaknesses" in evolution pointed out. But it's all the same program - it's all an attempt to let religious ideas determine what is taught in science courses.”

ThinkingKnowsWantTryingIdeasWantedUsedCoursesBeliefReligiousBehindsTeachTeacherAtheismTeachingDesignTaughtTheoryEvolutionProtectWeaknessProgramArgumentIntelligentDeterminePositive AtheismAlternativesContradictionReligious BeliefInvokeIntelligent Design
Author:Steven Weinberg
Create image

“Tendulkar can now rightly lay claim to the title of being the greatest batsman in cricket history. And if some people argue about his greatness then there are certainly no arguments about his being the most prolific, he is a complete run machine and his 50th Test hundred is a testimony of his endurance and passion for the sport”

PeopleIfsRunningPassionSportsGreatnessHundredArgumentTestsMachinesClaimsLaysArguingTitlesEnduranceCricketTestimonyTendulkar
Author:Rashid Latif
Create image

“Our current gun culture simply ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy, and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead... What I believe is, if he [Belcher] didn’t possess/own a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today... Handguns do not enhance our safety. They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments, and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it.”

IfsBelieveEndsTodayCultureI BelieveBoysAliveCarGunArgumentUltimateTragedySafetyCurrentsStoresLoudFlawsAvoidingTeenageDisputesConvenienceConfrontationLive For TodayBaitHandgunsLoud MusicGun Culture
Author:Bob Costas
Create image

“The art of conversation is to be prompt without being stubborn, to refute without argument, and to clothe great matters in a motley garb.”

ArtMatterConversationArgumentStubbornPromptsArt Of ConversationBeing Stubborn
Book:The works of Benjamin Disraeli, earl of Beaconsfield: embracing novels, romances, plays, poems, biography, short stories and great speeches
Create image