Best argument & ideas Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The free-trade idea, logically applied, will abolish usury; and with usury will disappear the chief bone of contention between labor and capital. But, just at this point, free-traders go over to the enemy; and many writers on political economy, in flat contradiction of the essential principles of that science, have made elaborate arguments to prove self-government in finance, impossible! What shall we think of men who, having dethroned kings, demolished popes, destroyed slave oligarchies and assailed tariff monopoly, advise submission to the most oppressive and dishonest of despotisms, Usury?”

“You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments. Especially when they challenge your best loved ideas.”

Ideas Force Challenges Argument Opposing Best Love

Author:Charlie Munger

“Fighting is not the best way to win an argument. If carried to its ultimate conclusions, the old idea of "an eye for an eye" eventually ends in making everybody blind.”

Ifs Way Ideas Ends Eye Fighting Winning Argument Ultimate Blind Best Way Conclusion Old Ideas Eye For An Eye

Author:Sterling W Sill

“Political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades cannot be refuted through rational arguments. They must run their course in life and cannot collapse otherwise than in great catastrophe.”

Mind Ideas Reason Running Political Courses Politics Argument Investing Decades Rational Collapse Catastrophe

Author:Ludwig von Mises

“The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.”

Ideas Would Be Political Politics Accepting Source Industry Argument Socialist Congressman Tainted

Author:Newt Gingrich

“There are two kinds of comprehensive doctrines, religious and secular. Those of religious faith will say I give a veiled argument for secularism, and the latter will say I give a veiled argument for religion. I deny both. Each side presumes the basic ideas of constitutional democracy, so my suggestion is that we can make our political arguments in terms of public reason. Then we stand on common ground. That's how we can understand each other and cooperate.”

“Some conservatives have expressed outrage that the views of professors are at odds with the views of students, as if ideas were entitled to be represented in proportion to their popularity and students were entitled to professors who share their political or social values. One of the more important functions of college that it exposes young people to ideas and arguments they have not encountered at home is redefined as a problem.”

People Ifs Important Ideas Problem Home Young Political Values Social Views Share Students College Argument Function Proportion Professors Odds Popularity Entitled Outrage Social Values

Author:Ellen Willis

“I gave someone a perverse argument not so long ago about why advertising is better than movies. You want to hear it? Movies operate from a really disingenuous premise, that people are heroes. I know a lot of people and have had an opportunity over the years to observe them. Are they heroes...? Let's put it this way. Advertising tries something simpler and more believable: Products as heroes. I guess the idea is: When all else fails, put your faith in conditioner.”

People Knows Way Want Trying Years Long Ideas Opportunity Failing Products Hero Argument Advertising Long Ago Premises Believable When All Else Fails Disingenuous

Author:Errol Morris

“As more and more citizens express what they think, and defend it in writing, that will change the way people understand public issues. It is easy to be wrong and misguided in your head. It is harder when the product of your mind can be criticized by others. Of course, it is a rare human who admits that he has been persuaded that he is wrong. But it is even rarer for a human to ignore when he has been proven wrong. The writing of ideas, arguments, and criticism improves democracy.”

People Thinking Way Writing Mind Humans Has Beens Ideas Courses Easy Democracy Issues Products Citizens Argument Criticism Harder Proven Misguided Proven Wrong

Book:Free Culture

Source: Free Culture

“Unlike liberalism, with its fundamental belief in the long-range power of ideas, conservatism is bound by the stock of ideas inherited at a given time. And since it does not really believe in the power of argument, its last resort is generally a claim to superior wisdom, based on some self-arrogated superior quality.”

Believe Long Doe Ideas Self Lasts Belief Given Quality Authority Argument Claims Fundamentals Bounds Superiors Range Liberalism Resorts Conservatism Power Of Ideas

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“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.”

“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.”

“Multitudes of words are neither an argument of clear ideas in the writer, nor a proper means of conveying clear notions to the reader.”

Mean Ideas Clear Reader Argument Notion Multitudes Conveying

Author:Adam Clarke

“The argument culture urges us to approach the world - and the people in it - in an adversarial frame of mind. It rests on the assumption that opposition is the best way to get anything done: The best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate; the best way to cover news is to find spokespeople who express the most extreme, polarized views and present them as 'both sides'; the best way to settle disputes is litigation that pits one party against the other; the best way to begin an essay is to attack someone; and the best way to show you're really thinking is to criticize.”

“Torture gives you reliable and unreliable information. That's the reason why most people in the world don't do it. So this idea that you have to torture people in order to protect national security is a false argument, and I reject it.”

People World Giving Ideas Reason Order Security Information Protect Argument Reason Why Torture Rejects National Security Unreliable

Author:John McCain

“Universities are fantastic places to gain knowledge on a subject, develop a personal network, explore your character and learn new techniques to approach problems. I do however believe that there is a strong argument for students who have an idea they are passionate about to just try and turn it into a reality. I fell into this category and I don't regret not going to University.”

Trying Believe Ideas Character Problem Reality Turns Strong Subjects Students Regret Approach Gains Argument University Passionate Technique Fantastic Categories Don't Regret

Author:Richard Branson

“Obama is not just a powerful speaker, but a thinker engaged with the ideas of his country and his age--this argument by historian James Kloppenberg should therefore fascinate anyone interested in American politics or how ideas shape public life. Tracing the influences of Obama's family, educational, and work experiences on his ideas, Reading Obama locates a unique individual in the crosscurrents of American democracy and continuing fights over American ideals.”

“One of the peculiarities of recent speculation, especially in America, is that ideas are abandoned in virtue of a mere change of feeling, without any new evidence or new arguments. We do not nowadays refute our predecessors, we pleasantly bid them good-bye.”

Ideas Feelings America Virtue Evidence Argument Mere Abandoned Speculation Bye Good Bye Predecessors

Book:Character and Opinion in the United States

Source: Character and Opinion in the United States

“When I am convinced of any principle, it is only an idea which strikes more strongly upon me. When I give the preference to one set of arguments above another, I do nothing but decide from my feeling concerning the superiority of their influence.”

Giving Ideas Feelings Belief Principles Influence Argument Convinced Strikes Superiority Preference

Book:A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections

Source: A Treatise of Human Nature: Top Philosophy Collections

“[T]he seeds of [the Argument Culture] can be found our classrooms, where a teacher will introduce an article or an idea . . . setting up debates where people learn not to listen to each other because they're so busy trying to win the debate.”

People Trying Ideas Culture Found Winning Teacher Argument Busy Seeds Debate Setting Settings Articles Classroom Introducing

Author:Deborah Tannen

“Well, it has done terrifying things. Religious ideas are inflammatory in a way that I find difficult to understand. There are very few wars over the theory of relativity. Very few heated arguments, for that matter. Whereas, in Northern Ireland, they are killing one another over religion.”

Way Wells Ideas War Matter Done Evil Difficult Religious Theory Argument Killing Ireland Relativity Northern Ireland Theories Of Relativity

Author:Quentin Crisp

“The idea of a group of elders is that, in past civilizations, they have linked worlds; the other world was also present in this one. There is also the argument that elders have "experience." The problem is that experience teaches fear of change. Experience kills imagination. Experience makes people conservative. What we are facing tomorrow requires the force of imagination, not wisdom from yesterday.”

People World Ideas Problem Past Force Imagination Teach Groups Tomorrow Civilization Argument Conservative Yesterday Linked Elders Other Worlds Fear Of Change

Author:Jacques Yves Cousteau

“I like good ideas. I don't want just do something for it's own sake to bother people, but if I can bother them with a logical argument about something they have agreed to in society simplistically - like children are sacred, the cult of the child, this cult of professional parenthood, and of course religion, and respect for policemen and the law, and all of these untouchable areas. I like attacking those beliefs, but in with good sound thinking, and an unusual approach.”

“It as an argument between the world of emotion versus the world of the intellect. It's the idea that you can suppress a person's mind and a person's experiences, mentally, psychologically and intellectually, but you can't completely quiet them to the point of dormancy and the emotionally life a person. You still have the heart and what the heart remembers and what the heart experiences. And even that isn't important that that comes across.”

World Mind Heart Persons Stills Important Ideas Remember Emotion Quiet Argument Intellect Versus

Author:Colin Farrell

“I keep hearing the argument that some things are constitutional while other things are not. The idea is that we should be in favor of all the things that were decided over 200 years ago by a bunch of slave-owning cross-dressers who pooped in holes.”

Should Years Ideas Political Years Ago Argument Crosses Decided Slave Hearing Favors Holes Bunch Dressers

Author:Scott Adams

“I don't think that split government is a good idea. Conventional wisdom in Washington for years has been that divided government is good because of a check and a balance. What I believe happens all too often, regardless of which party is there's gridlock. And I think the better argument is give one party a chance, give them a chance with a House and a Senate and a president. Give them a few years to see what they can do. And if you don't like it, put another party in.”

“There have been times that we've had arguments with Brad [Dourif] because he comes in with very strong ideas and, as in any working relationship, sometimes you're going to disagree, and he always goes to the mat and I've just always appreciated that attitude, that he takes it so seriously.”

Has Beens Ideas Sometimes Strong Attitude Argument Disagree Very Strong Appreciated Brad

Author:David Kirschner

“Evolution as described by Charles Darwin is an scientific theory, abundantly reconfirmed, explaining physical phenomena by physical causes. Intelligent Design is a faith-based initiative in rhetorical argument. Should we teach I.D. in America's public schools? Yes, let's do - not as science, but alongside other spiritual beliefs, such as Islam, Zoroastrianism and the Hindu Idea that Earth rests on Chukwa, the giant turtle.”

“That's always been in my mind my metaphor for a team working really hard on something they're passionate about. It's that through the team, through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas, and what comes out are these really beautiful stones.”

People Mind Ideas Sometimes Hard Together Beautiful Fighting Groups Team Argument Stones Metaphor Passionate Noise Working Together Polish Really Beautiful Team Working Working Really Hard

Author:Steve Jobs

“Religion ... has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. What it means is, 'Here is an idea or a notion that you're not allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not? Because you're just not. If someone votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. ... But on the other hand, if somebody says 'I mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday', you say 'I respect that'.”

Ifs Feels Heart Mean Ideas Hands Light Moving Certain Party Holy Argument Vote Agree Sacred Notion Arguing Why Not Saturday Say Anything

Author:Douglas Adams

“When communism failed, it wasn't a good idea that had gone wrong, it was a bad idea that had been sustained with incredible determination in the face of all the commonsense arguments, and at the cost of 20 million lives at least, in Russia, to build the socialist Utopia.”

Ideas Faces Millions Gone Cost Determination Argument Incredibles Russia Communism Good Ideas Socialist Utopia Bad Ideas

Author:Martin Amis

“People who reject transcendent authority can no longer persuade one another through rational arguments; everything is reduced to personal opinion. Debates about ideas thus degenerate into power struggles; we're left with no moral standard by which to measure the common good. For that matter, how can there be a 'common good' without an objective standard of truth?”

Source: The Sky Is Not Falling: Living Feaerlessly in These Turbulent Times

“The music of the supreme architect, Bach, is filled with pages of discursive argument and rumination, glorifying the nameless whole by a rich embroidery of passages which lead everywhere and nowhere. The ideas are presented, stood on their head, dissolved into fragments, until the ultimate message becomes the connections of all things great and small, a chain of being which cannot be secured until the last note is in place.”

Ideas Whole Lasts Rich Messages Pages Argument All Things Connections Ultimate Filled Notes Supreme Chains Passages Architect Fragments Secured Nameless Embroidery Rumination

Author:Russell Sherman

“I think we have got to start again and go right back to first principles. The argument I shall advance, surprising as it may seem coming from the author of the earlier chapters, is that, for an understanding of the evolution of modern man, we must begin by throwing out the gene as the sole basis of our ideas on evolution. If there is only one Creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle, what is He playing at? Is he a sadist who enjoys spectator blood sports? ... Is he manuvering to maximize David Attenborough's television ratings?”

Source: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition

“As an individual navigating this reality, you have to make choices to survive. Sometimes you happily work for free if it's something you love and believe in. I'm not categorically saying that working for free is bad. I'm just looking at the broader implications of it, and also challenge this idea - and again, this is an argument made by certain people in the tech world - that amateurs are automatically more pure and will triumph over stodgy professionals.”

People Ifs World Believe Made Ideas Sometimes Reality Certain Choices Individual Challenges Pure Argument Triumph Implications Something You Love

Author:Astra Taylor

“I think that a true economics thinker or a Marxist thinker would make nonsense of my argument, although I have given massive seminars and no one has demolished it so far. I did think that this idea from an artisanal and trading perception of the auratic quality of goods when they are given character and inscription, made the stories of phantasmic wealth read more powerfully in the 18th and 19th centuries than the stories of Cinderella's wealth, because they are conjured out of nothing by these magic means.”

Thinking Mean Made Ideas Character Stories Given Wealth Quality Magic Century Perception Economics Argument Nonsense Massive Goods Thinker Trading 19th Century Marxist Inscriptions Seminars

Author:Marina Warner

“One of the things I want to do in the book is to explore how philosophy can be done in literature. I start doing that in the first chapter, by introducing the idea of "philosophy by showing". What literature/philosophy shows is how to look at some important facets of life in a new way, thus changing the frame in which subsequent philosophical argument proceeds.”

Way Want Firsts Looks Important Book Ideas Done Philosophy Shows Literature Argument Philosophical Introducing Chapters New Ways Facets

Author:Philip Kitcher

“You make men love their government and their country by giving them the kind of government and the kind of country that inspire respect and love; a country that is free and unafraid, that lets the discontented talk in order to learn the causes of their discontent and end those causes, that refuses to impel men to spy on their neighbors, that protects its citizens vigorously from harmful acts while it leaves the remedies for objectionable ideas to counter-argument and time.”

Source: Government and Mass Communications

“There are constraints on what counts as "Reformed." It's more than a name or a label. It's about belonging to a particular theological stream or tradition, which is shaped in important respects by particular thinkers and their work, particular arguments and ideas, a particular community (especially, particular church communities, denominations, and so on), particular liturgies or ways of worshipping and living out the Christian life, and particular confessions that inform the practices of these communities.”

“Often we're having an argument with something imaginary - a fixed idea of the "enemy" and the good. We need to get beyond that and actually develop a deep curiosity about people and systems and understand them better.”

People Needs Ideas Enemy Argument Curiosity Fixed Imaginary

Author:Duncan Green

“When we started out and we were talking about the origins of the universe and the physical constants, I provided what I thought were cogent arguments against a supernatural intelligent designer. But it does seem to me to be a worthy idea.”

Doe Ideas Seems Universe Talking Argument Intelligent Worthy Designer Intelligent Design

Author:Richard Dawkins

“After Pope, in the beginning of Romanticism, people developed the idea that imagination rather than reason was a special form of knowledge and its best expression is through poetry. Therefore, poetry should not try to do the stuff that mere prose does: convey information or make arguments about ideas.”

People Should Trying Doe Ideas Reason Form Stuff Imagination Special Information Expression Argument Mere Prose Pope Romanticism

Author:Robert Hass

“We don't have ways of resolving the arguments in idea meritocratic way.”

Way Ideas Argument

Author:Ray Dalio

“Radicals are not going to disappear. They're going to go underground. They're going to be hardened. And they're not going to be exposed to contrary ideas made by educated people who can make real, convincing, and persuasive arguments to deradicalise these people.”

People Made Ideas Real Argument Disappear Contrary Educated Radical Exposed Convincing Persuasive Hardened

Author:Edward Snowden

“In my view, the argument from parsimony is really no argument at all - it typically functions only to shut down more interesting discussion. If history is any guide, it's never a good idea to assume that a scientiﬁc problem is cornered.”

Ifs Ideas Problem Interesting Views Argument Function Assuming Guides Discussion Good Ideas Cornered Parsimony

Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

Source: Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

“We did respect [Bernard Leach], although we also were willing to challenge ideas and at least put forth our feelings about the way the pottery was run, about things that were done, about the pots we were making, etc. And we would get into sometimes some very fierce arguments. We'd be shouting at one another because of disagreements.”

Way Ideas Sometimes Done Feelings Running Challenges Willing Argument Etc Pot Fierce Disagreement Shouting Pottery

Author:Warren MacKenzie

“As set forth by theologians, the idea of 'God' is an argument that assumes its own conclusions, and proves nothing.”

Ideas Prove Argument Assuming Conclusion Agnostic Theologian

Author:Johann Most

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers.”

Should Two Ideas Left Party Policy Ideals Argument Foolish Thinker Academic Acceptable Foreign Relations

Book:Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time

Source: Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.”

Needs Humans Ideas Conflict Argument Innovation Debate Good Ideas Interaction Ideas And Innovation Research And Innovation

Author:Margaret Heffernan

“I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion.”

People Ifs Men Want Persons Ideas Different Home Religion Praying Argument Agree What You Want Arguing Best Things Good Ideas Different Religions

Book:Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything

Source: Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything

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