Best argument & thinking Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 4

“Some of my understanding of what philosophy and ethics is has changed very slowly. One thing that has changed is this for quite a long time I bought-into the idea that philosophy is basically about arguments. I'm increasingly of the view that it isn't. The most interesting things in philosophy aren't arguments. The thing that I think is underestimated is what I call a form of attending. I think that philosophy is at least as much about carefully attending to things as it is about the structure of arguments.”

Thinking Long Philosophy Understanding Interesting Changed Ethics Argument Most Interesting Underestimated

Author:Julian Baggini

“I guess I've always had such an identity crisis when it comes to other people's understanding of me. I don't feel it in myself but from an outsider's point of view, I can see they must be thinking, "Who the hell does this guy think he is?" But recently I've been thinking, okay, a white guy can't sing soul, but would a black person be made exempt from singing opera because it's not a tradition that belongs to them? It's the same kind of argument.”

Thinking Kind Soul Guy Understanding Black Hell Identity Singing Argument Tradition Okay Crisis Point Of View

Author:Jamie Lidell

“Generally speaking, I tend to think that whether a philosopher's views are true is a poor test of their quality. What matter are the arguments they give, and the insights those arguments inspire.”

Thinking Giving Poor Quality Inspire Argument Insight

Author:Richard F. Heck

“To borrow from Mark Twain, I tend to think that reports of the death of supervaluationist approaches have been greatly exaggerated. The arguments that have been given against supervaluationism usually aim to show that it is just incoherent. But it's not. It may be false, as a general theory of vagueness, but it's a coherent and, I think, even correct way to think about some vagueness.”

Thinking Argument Aim

Author:Richard F. Heck

“It's funny that Chairman Mao's great hero was Napoleon, because Napoleon started out as a revolutionary for the underdogs and then made himself an emperor. In fact, a lot of revolutionary leaders do that, and you think, "Well, that's spoiling your argument. What are you doing?" But on the other hand, the people themselves are enjoying trying out all these different ways to be. I hope that, like the Japanese, the Chinese hang on to their own traditions as well as try out Western ones. I hate it when people just lose so much confidence in who they are that they abandon their own culture.”

People Thinking Trying Different Hate Culture Enjoy Leader Hero Argument Tradition I Hate Western Chinese Revolutionary Abandon Emperor Underdog

Author:Robert Wyatt

“There's a lot of disputes around the world, a lot of territorial conflicts around the world. But Israel is the only country in the world whose capital is not recognized. I don't think the United States recognizing Jerusalem as a capital will prevent any sort of peace agreement from happening in the future. It's not actually a sensible argument. What it will do is it will right a historic wrong. Something that should have happened 69 years ago will finally happen. And then we have to get about the process of trying to advance peace between the parties.”

Thinking World Trying Country Party Conflict Argument Sensible Historic

Author:Ron Dermer

“I think what hinders the argument is when people are afraid of hurting the feelings of racists and people who are genuinely - some of them - out of their minds. They demand to see Obama's birth certificate. They claim that he wants to kill our grandparents with his health care. They want to be able to carry their guns into every public place. Why do we need to coddle these people?”

People Thinking Mind Feelings Care Hurt Birth Gun Argument Health Care Racist Grandparent Hinder

Author:Janeane Garofalo

“I love to just listen and watch. I could happily watch a security camera at a store. Often during a day I'll see a guy selling pretzels or an argument that somebody's having on a stoop and I'll think, "Oh I wish I had my camera, I wish I could capture this moment." There's something about people being people and interacting that can be so beautiful when it's framed by a camera. That desire to capture people as they are, and the stubbornness to keep going when they don't necessarily want you to capture them being who they are, are key.”

People Thinking Moments Beautiful Desire Guy Wish Security Argument Selling Keep Going Just Listen Stubbornness Framed

Author:Marshall Curry

“I believe in what I believe, and I think after all these years I've heard a lot of arguments, and I'm convinced by the superiority of the arguments that are made on the conservative side. I think that's a better way to run a society.”

Thinking Way Years Believe Made Running I Believe Sides Heard Argument Conservative I Believe In Convinced Superiority Better Ways

Author:Charles Krauthammer

“There is some argument about who actually invented text messaging, but I think it's safe to say it was a man. Multiple studies have shown that the average man uses about half as many words per day as women, thus text messaging. It eliminates hellos and goodbyes and cuts right to the chase.”

Thinking Men Use Half Study Cutting Safe Argument Average Goodbye Multiple Average Man Text Messaging

Author:Ashton Kutcher

“I think the biggest mistake I made was this wretched ability to see both sides of an argument.”

Thinking Made Sides Ability Mistake Argument Both Sides Wretched Ability To See Biggest Mistake

Author:John Major

“Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hardwired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country's scared.”

Thinking Doe Country Reason Facts Seems Winning Right Now Tough Argument Scared Winning The Day

Author:Barack Obama

“The liberals think government exists to fix what's wrong with America. They find fault with our Constitution, our economic model and our core values. We disagree with the premise of their argument. We believe there's nothing wrong with America that an extra dose of freedom won't cure.”

Thinking Believe Government America Values Economic Models Argument Constitution Faults Core Cures Extras Disagree Premises Dose Core Values Economic Models

Author:Rick Perry

“I think fiction isn't so good at being for or against things in general - the rhetorical argument a short story can make is only actualized by the accretion of particular details, and the specificity of these details renders whatever conclusions the story reaches invalid for wider application.”

Thinking Stories Fiction Particular Argument Details Conclusion Application Short Story Rhetorical Specificity

Author:George Saunders

“I used to think that my mother got into arguments with people because they didn't understand her English, because she was Chinese.”

People Thinking Used Mother Argument Chinese

Author:Amy Tan

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Ifs Thinking Wells Mean Political Politics Left Argument Iron Cheer Cheerful Cheerfulness Slander Cheer Up Iron Lady Quixotic Personal Attacks Downing Street Political Arguments

Author:Margaret Thatcher

“My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art.”

Thinking Art Would Be Political Argument Good Art Political Art

Author:Thom Yorke

“[M]an has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to having a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" or "false," but as "academic" or "practical," "outworn" or "contemporary," "conventional" or "ruthless." Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong or stark or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.”

“I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Should Argument Teeth Excellent Gentleman Pockets Slips Steel Brushes Twists Obliged Knots Revolver

Book:The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 56 Stories & 4 Novels

Source: The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 56 Stories & 4 Novels

“As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.”

Source: Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68

“One can ask why the I has to appear in the cogito {Descartes’ argument “I think therefore I am.}, since the cogito, if used rightly, is the awareness of pure consciousness, not directed at any fact or action. In fact the I is not necessary here, since it is never united directly to consciousness. One can even imagine a pure and self-aware consciousness which thinks of itself as impersonal spontaneity.”

Ifs Thinking Self Facts Action Used Asks United Consciousness Imagine Awareness Pure Argument Spontaneity

Author:Jean-Paul Sartre

“Some care is needed in using Descartes' argument. "I think, therefore I am" says rather more than is strictly certain. It might seem as though we are quite sure of being the same person to-day as we were yesterday, and this is no doubt true in some sense. But the real Self is as hard to arrive at as the real table, and does not seem to have that absolute, convincing certainty that belongs to particular experiences.”

Thinking Persons Doe Real Self Hard Seems Might Care Certain Doubt Particular Needed Argument Absolutes Tables Yesterday Certainty No Doubt Convincing Real Self

Book:The Problems of Philosophy

Source: The Problems of Philosophy

“People say there are no atheists in foxholes. A lot of people think this is a good argument against atheism. Personally, I think it's a much better argument against foxholes.”

People Thinking Atheism Argument Atheist Foxholes

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“Of our thinking it is but the upper surface that we shape into articulate thought; underneath the region of argument and conscious discourse lies the region of meditation.”

Thinking Lying Meditation Shapes Conscious Argument Surface Regions Discourse

Book:Autobiography of J.S. Mill & on Liberty; Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh & Sir Walter Scott

Source: Autobiography of J.S. Mill & on Liberty; Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh & Sir Walter Scott

“I was asking if unwinding kills you, or if it leaves you alive somehow. C'mon—it's not like we haven't thought about it." (...) What do you think, Connor?" asks Hayden. "What happens to your soul when you get unwound?" Who says I even got one?" For the sake of argument, let's say you do." Who says I want an argument?”

Ifs Thinking Want Soul Asks Alive Havens Argument Asking Sake Your Soul Pens

Author:Neal Shusterman

“I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it.”

Ifs Thinking Made Reason Science Rooms Mistake Subjects Argument Mathematics Sorry Math Mathematical I'm Sorry Made A Mistake Math And Science Mathematics And Science Math Education

Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“I think the attempt to defend belief can unsettle it, in fact, because there is always an inadequacy in argument about ultimate things.”

Thinking Facts Belief Argument Ultimate Inadequacy

Author:Marilynne Robinson

“Coldplay songs deliver an amorphous, irrefutable interpretation of how being in love is supposed to feel, and people find themselves wanting that feeling for real. They want men to adore them like Lloyd Dobler would, and they want women to think like Aimee Mann, and they expect all their arguments to sound like Sam Malone and Diane Chambers. They think everything will work out perfectly in the end (just like it did for Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones and Nick Hornby's Rob Fleming), and they don't stop believing because Journey's Steve Perry insists we should never do that.”

Source: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

“Sometimes we just walk into something that is not for us at all. We pretend it is. We think we can shrug it off like a coat, but it's not a coat at all, it's more like another skin. [...] All I wanted was to make my life thrilling for a while: to take the oridinary objects of my days and make a different argument out of them, no obligations to my past.”

Thinking Different Sometimes Wanted Past Walks Objects Argument Skins Obligation Coats Thrilling My Past

Author:Colum McCann

“Curse him for being all tight muscle, with ivory skin and a mouth as soft as rose petals. Curse him for having hair as fair as the sun, and eyes as black as night. Curse him for having the grace of a cat and deft, cool hands. And now I am having the same argument on paper that I have in my own head on too many nights. I know my choice is sensible, but it isn't my common sense I think with, those times Rosto's stolen a kiss from me.”

Thinking Knows Hands Eye Night Choices Black My Own Common Sun Grace Hair Kissing Paper Mouths Fairs Argument Cat Skins Rose Common Sense Curse Muscles Sensible Stolen Petals Ivory Rose Petals

Author:Tamora Pierce

“The man assumes the role of the loner, the thinker and the searching spirit who calls the privileged and the powerful to task. The power of one was the courage to remain separate, th think through the truth and not be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to maintain power, whatever the cost.”

Thinking Men Spirit Powerful Roles Cost Argument Tasks Assuming Thinker Conventions Privileged Loner Plausible Power Of One

Author:Bryce Courtenay

“I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.”

People Thinking Argument

Author:Iain Banks

“Do you know, the only people I can have a conversation with are the Jews? At least when they quote scripture at you they are not merely repeating something some priest has babbled in their ear. They have the great merit of disagreeing with nearly everything I say. In fact, they disagree with almost everything they say themselves. And most importantly, they don't think that shouting strengthens their argument.”

People Thinking Knows I Can Facts Conversation Argument Ears Jew Scripture Merit Priests Do You Know Disagree Disagreement Shouting

Book:Dream of Scipio

Source: Dream of Scipio

“The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry. And I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that's it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.”

People Thinking Should Book Ends Reason Healthy Authority Messages Argument Presses Assuming Tolerance Bigotry Establishment Potters

Author:J. K. Rowling

“Who would not want an illness that has among its symptoms elevated and expansive mood, inflated self-esteem, abundance of energy, less need for sleep, intensified sexuality, and- most germane to our argument here-"sharpened and unusually creative thinking" and "increased productivity"?”

Thinking Want Needs Self Energy Sleep Creative Self Esteem Argument Illness Sexuality Productivity Mood Esteem Abundance Symptoms Creative Thinking

Book:Touched With Fire

Source: Touched With Fire

“I won the argument against the knife that night, but barely. I had some other good ideas around that time--about how jumping off a building or blowing my brains out with a gun might stop the suffering. but something about spending a night with a knife in my hand did it. The next morning I called my friend Susan as the sun came up, begged her to help me. I don't think a woman in the whole history of my family had ever done that before, had ever sat in the middle of the road like that and said, in the middle of her life, "I cannot walk another step further--somebody has to help me.”

Source: Eat Pray Love 10th-Anniversary Edition: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

“Without pain, how could we know joy?' This is an old argument in the field of thinking about suffering and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not, in any way, affect the taste of chocolate.”

Thinking Knows Way Doe Pain Joy Suffering Inspiring Existence Century Fields Taste Argument Stupidity Chocolate Sophistication Without Pain Broccoli

Book:The Fault in Our Stars

Source: The Fault in Our Stars

“..I've been trying to argue myself into thinking these things don't matter, A. Really,I have. But I've lost the argument. And I can't keep having it, when I know what the real answer is.”

Thinking Knows Trying I Can Real Matter Lost Answers Argument Arguing

Book:Every Day

Source: Every Day

“When was the last time you lost an argument?" He pretended to think about it. Then, leaning down, he whispered in her ear, "A few hours ago when you refused to stop the car and crawl into the backseat with me.”

Thinking Lasts Lost Hours Car Argument Ears Last Time Backseat

Book:Play of Passion

Source: Play of Passion

“So you see how endlessly futile and fruitless it would be if we wanted to refute their objections every time they obstinately resolved not to think through what they say but merely to speak, just so long as they contradict our arguments in any way they can.”

Ifs Thinking Way Long Would Be Wanted Speak Argument Objections

Book:The City of God

Source: The City of God

“If you think your belief is based upon reason, you will support it by argument rather than by persecution, and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if your belief is based upon faith, you will realize that argument is useless, and will therefore resort to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting or distorting the minds of the young in what is called 'education.'”

Ifs Thinking Mind Reason Form Young Belief Force Realizing Support Argument Intelligence Useless Abandon Persecution Resorts Stunting

Book:Bertrand Russell's Best

Source: Bertrand Russell's Best

“I opposed the Suez war, I opposed the Falklands war. I opposed the Libyan bombing and I opposed the Gulf war and I never believed that any of those principled arguments lost a single vote - indeed, I think they gained support though that was not why you did it. What has been lacking in Labour politics over a long period is a principled stand”

Thinking Long Has Beens War Politics Lost Support Periods Argument Vote Labour Lacking Bombing Gulf War Principled Falklands

Author:Tony Benn

“Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.”

Ifs Thinking Humans Persons Feelings Hands Seems Science Human Beings Argument Legs Favors Shoulders Doctrine Conclusion Frogs Superstitious Twitching

Author:William James

“There is no such thing as a convincing argument, although every man thinks he has one.”

Thinking Men Opinion Argument Every Man Convincing

Author:E. W. Howe

“Every gay reader understands the secret self that is full and wonderful and has longing and tenderness and a desire for connection to other people. I think that arguments against gay marriage are just ridiculous! Who cares? People want to get married for the same reason I wanted to get married. They want to do it in front of their friends and family”

“I guess some people are brilliant enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, 'That sucks' or 'You're crazy' or 'That's cheesy' or 'What do you think of this?'”

People Thinking Enough Doubt Crazy Argument Come Up Brilliant Fabulous Cheesy

Author:Madonna Ciccone

“Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, "I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated," we could say, "Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you." But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.”

“I am very hostile to religion because it is enormously dominant, especially in American life. And I don't buy the argument that, well, it's harmless. I think it is harmful, partly because I care passionately about what's true.”

Thinking Wells Care Religion Atheism Argument I Care Dominant Hostile American Life Because I Care

Author:Richard Dawkins

“As for our pupils talk, let his virtue and his sense of right and wrong shine through it and have no guide but reason. Make him understand that confessing an error which he discovers in his own argument even when he alone has noticed it is an act of justice and integrity, which are the main qualities he pursues; stubbornness and rancour are vulgar qualities, visible in common souls whereas to think again, to change one's mind and to give up a bad case on the heat of the argument are rare qualities showing strength and wisdom.”

“Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for example, that what was presented as an argument is really a rationalization. This can undermine our confidence in the original method or practice only by giving us reasons to believe something else, so that finally we have to think about the arguments to make up our minds.”

Thinking Giving Mind Believe Ends Reason Challenges Results Practice Example Argument Universal Philosophical Originals Method

Book:Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

Source: Other Minds: Critical Essays 1969-1994

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