Best argument & writing Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Invariably, it is this for which I write: the joy ... of an argument firmly made, like a nail straightly driven, its head flush to the plank.”

Writing Made Joy Argument Driven Nails

Author:George Will

“There is an argument for believing that the entire process of writing a piece of fiction is simply a thinly-controlled and highly-internalised nervous breakdown designed, with a bit of luck, to produce something worthwhile at the end.”

Writing Believe Ends Bits Process Fiction Pieces Produce Argument Luck Nervous Controlled Worthwhile Breakdown Nervous Breakdown

Book:Writing: A User Manual: A practical guide to planning, starting and finishing a novel

Source: Writing: A User Manual: A practical guide to planning, starting and finishing a novel

“Great novelists are philosopher novelists - that is, the contrary of thesis-writers.”

Writing Argument Philosopher Novelists

Author:Albert Camus

“Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story's persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.”

Writing Mind Humans Facts Stories Shows Seems Able Lasts Values Belief Results Attitude Fiction Study Psychology Effects Serious Evidence Argument Decades Human Mind Persuasive

Author:Jonathan Gottschall

“Good editorial writing has less to do with winning an argument, since the other side is mostly not listening, than with telling the guys on your side how they ought to sound when they’re arguing.”

Writing Guy Winning Sound Sides Listening Ought Argument Arguing Your Side Editorials Winning An Argument

Author:Adam Gopnik

“It is so hard for an evolutionary biologist to write about extinction caused by human stupidity. Let me then float an unconventional plea, the inverse of the usual argument. The extinction of Partula is unfair to Partula. That is the conventional argument, and I do not challenge its primacy. But we need a humanistic ecology as well, both for the practical reason that people will always touch people more than snails do or can, and for the moral reason that humans are legitimately the measure of all ethical questions for these are our issues, not nature's.”

“To write and speak correctly is certainly necessary; but it is not sufficient. A derivation correctly presented in the book or on the blackboard may be inaccessible and uninstructive, if the purpose of the successive steps is incomprehensible, if the reader or listener cannot understand how it was humanly possible to find such an argument....”

Ifs Writing May Book Purpose Speak Steps Reader Argument Sufficient Listeners Inaccessible Blackboard

Author:George Polya

“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

“Aristotle writes that persuasion is based on three things: the ethos, or personal character of the speaker; the pathos, or getting the audience into the right kind of emotional receptivity; and the logos, or the argument itself, carried out by abbreviated syllogisms, or something like deductive syllogisms, and by the use of example.”

Writing Kind Character Use Three Audience Example Emotional Argument Speakers Persuasion Three Things Ethos Logos Pathos Receptivity Personal Character

Book:Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion - Second Edition

Source: Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion - Second Edition

“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of the political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.”

Source: Orwell and Politics

“Each book is, in a sense, an argument with myself, and I would write it, whether it is ever published or not.”

Writing Book Argument

Author:Patricia Highsmith

“Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument and conversation - is worth it to me. [It is] impossible for me to imagine having my life without going to those parties, without having those late nights, without that second bottle.”

Writing Important Sometimes Helping Night Party Imagine Impossible Conversation Late Argument Help Me Bottles Worth It What's Important Late Night

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“Filmmaking materials are in the hands of more people now than ever before. I would like to think that the more people have these tools, the more people will learn how to use them, it's another argument I would argue for, personally, for art's education. Because there are kids who aren't that literate in screen language and they've got to know how people select shots, how people edit audio, how people combine things to make what they see on the screen. It would be like the 15th century or the 16th century in Germany, and somebody amends a printing press and you don't know how to read and write.”

“Johnson is wise, Boswell foolish; Johnson warns and abstains, Boswell plunges; Johnson is rather a great man writing than a greatwriter, Boswell is a great writer and an ordinary man; and they are two of a kind, abysmal melancholics and compulsive socializers, afraid of solitude and afraid of death and dissolution, victims of themselves, meant for each other, needing each other, needing evidence and arguments (Boswell is a lawyer, Johnson magisterially dictates to him some of his briefs), making beautiful models of rational discourse out of the useful substance of all they know.”

“Old texts, myths, and religions have always fascinated me, though I prefer learning about them to writing papers and trying to make thoughts and arguments regarding their effect or meaning - this being the essence of my time in religious studies.”

Writing Trying Religious Study Effects Paper Argument Essence Myth My Time Fascinated Papers Religious Studies

Author:Tom Shields

“Obscurity in writing is commonly an argument of darkness in the mind. The greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plainness.”

Writing Mind Darkness Style Argument Obscurity Plainness

Author:John Wilkins

“As a profession, freelance writing is notoriously insecure. That's the first argument in its favor. For many reasons, a few of them rational, the thought of knowing exactly what next year's accomplishments, routine, income, and vacation will be - or even what time I have to get up tomorrow morning - has always depressed me.”

Writing Years Firsts Reason Next Morning Knowing Tomorrow Argument Profession Favors Income Rational Get Up Accomplishment Routine Vacation Insecure Next Year Tomorrow Morning

Author:Gloria Steinem

“I really do believe that chance favours a prepared mind. Wallace Stegner, who was one of my teachers when I was at Stanford, preached that writing a novel is not something that can be done in a sprint. That it's a marathon. You have to pace yourself. He himself wrote two pages every day and gave himself a day off at Christmas. His argument was at the end of a year, no matter what, you'd got 700 pages and that there's got to be something worth keeping.”

Writing Years Mind Believe Two Ends Matter Done Chance Novel Teacher Pages Argument No Matter What Prepared Pace Favour Marathon Days Off Sprint Stanford Pace Yourself

Author:Scott Turow

“I think the essence of the argument has always been, first of all, the Guild doesn't want writing on spec. And that's been a major problem over the years. But obviously, to the young writer that's unfair and it's discriminatory, and it can be very hurtful to one's career.”

Thinking Want Writing Years Firsts Problem Young Careers Majors Argument Essence Unfair Hurtful Young Writers Major Problems Guilds Specs

Author:Rod Serling

“There are many things I think about that never get to the point of becoming serious. In other words, I try to talk myself out of writing, sometimes for many years, and when I run out of arguments, I write.”

Thinking Writing Trying Years Sometimes Running Serious Becoming Argument

Author:Aleksandar Hemon

“As soon as you opened your mouth and said the word woman, you were beaten down with the argument that you were betraying the class struggle. There are many poignant writings in which feminists first write pages about their class standpoint before getting to their actual issue. What was then known as class warfare is today called anti-racism. The threat of being accused of racism gave birth to false tolerance.”

“I don't really have those kinds of intentions when I write a scene. I try to follow the internal logic of the fiction, rather than make an argument or an assertion.”

Writing Trying Kind Fiction Scene Argument Logic Intention Internals Assertion

Author:Rachel Kushner

“Mann was profoundly influenced by two philosophers, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, who returned to the most ancient of all philosophical questions - "How to live?" - and whose writings offered novel perspectives for considering that question (much more perspective-offering than rigorous argument!)”

Writing Two Novel Perspective Argument Philosophical Ancient Philosopher Offering Considering Philosophical Questions

Author:Philip Kitcher

“There's a fantastic, thousand-page book by David Thomson about [David O. Selznick]. Again, it's not the best argument or the best advertisement for his story, because most people aren't going to read a thousand-page book. But I feel like the rise and fall and the work [Mayer] produced - not just the movies, but the memos, the volume of writing - he's just so passionate, and that's really exciting.”

People Feels Writing Book Stories Fall Thousand Pages Argument Exciting Passionate Fantastic Volume Advertisements Rise And Fall Memos Mayer

Author:Karina Longworth

“The Consequentialist trinity is typically regarded in this way: Bentham is crude, Mill's writings are full of howlers and inconsistencies, and Sidgwick was too smart to fully embrace Consequentialism. All of these great traditions in moral philosophy express strands of our moral consciousness and they should all be treated as research programs rather than as fully determinate views that can be leveled by a counterexample or by a clever argument.”

“Even if you're trying to remain objective, even if you're trying not to mount any campaigns or endorse anything, when you cover an issue you are at least encouraging people to think about all the possibilities and if you're not covering political reform, electoral reform, you can write stories about them that don't say we must do this but just educate people on the fact that there are various advocates who are tugging us in that direction, that can present the arguments of those advocates, and I do think that's an issue we for some reason completely turned away from.”

People Thinking Writing Trying Reason Political Possibility Argument Various Educate

Author:Frank Bruni

“Wildlife was the only thing we've written together with Paul Dano. It's based on a book by this author Richard Ford, who just published a memoir about his family that's really wonderful. Paul fell in love with his book, and we optioned it ourselves, and he took a first pass at writing it. He asked me for notes, and then our note session devolved into an argument really quickly.”

Writing Book Together Wonderful Argument Memoir

Author:Zoe Kazan

“From my vantage point, when I'm criticized in a way that I can hear what's being said - i.e., the issues - I'm more likely to listen and respond. A lot of the personal email I receive consists of name calling; I'll write back and say: Talk to me like I'm a person and you're a person and tell me where you disagree with me. I can't tell you how that turns people upside down. More often than not they write back with an apology and a reasoned argument.”

People Writing Argument Disagree Apology Upside Down Talk To Me Name Calling

Author:Steven Petrow

“I find myself speaking through the other characters, putting ideas in their voices and heads. Writing almost becomes a splitting of myself into multiple personalities. But I don't write to make an argument on behalf of any of the characters, or to prove anything about a character. I think that's important that I be serving the story first and not my own point of view.”

Thinking Writing Important Character Personality Prove Argument Point Of View Multiple Multiple Personalities

Author:Danzy Senna

“I rely heavily on Thomas Sowell's magnificent book, Black Rednecks, White Liberals. He points out that blacks in the North perform better, academically, than whites in the South where they did not have much of an emphasis on learning. But please note that I'm not the one making that argument in that section about Michael Moore. And by the way, I'm not a man. White men have done a lot. It's silly to write a book titled, Stupid White Men.”

Men Writing Book Done Black Stupid Argument Silly Rely Magnificent Redneck

Author:Ann Coulter

“If you come from a working-class background, you can't afford to write full time, because you're just not being paid. Basically, all my arguments come down to Marxist doctrine: The world is shaped by money, so the only voices you'll hear are the ones with money behind them. But thankfully, culture and cool are some things that circumvent money, because if you're cool, people will want to give you money - suddenly you shape the market and people start coming to you. Which is why culture has always been a traditional way out for working-class people.”

People World Giving Writing Culture Argument Marxist Cool People

Author:Caitlin Moran

“The fact that I am constantly immersed in the act of legal writing and editing has made me a better and more efficient creative writer and editor. In the end, lawyers need to tell compelling stories when they write a brief or other legal argument. A successful lawyer understands that the judge is merely a person who is going to read that brief, which should articulate a compelling reason for the judge to rule in that lawyer's favor. In other words, a legal advocate needs to get the judge to care. That's not dissimilar to what a creative writer does.”

Writing Reason Care Creative Successful Judging Argument Lawyer

Author:Daniel Olivas

“I didn't write about my mother much in the third year after she died. I was still trying to get my argument straight: When her friends or our relatives wondered why I was still so hard on her, I could really lay out the case for what it had been like to be raised by someone who had loathed herself, her husband, even her own name.”

Writing Trying Years Stills Hard Mother Names Cases Husband Argument Thirds Died Lays Raised

Author:Anne Lamott

“Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It's the struggle towards truthfulness which is the same whether one is writing a poem, a novel or an argument.”

Writing Used Novel Struggle Argument Opposites Screens Truthfulness Diversion

Author:John Berger

“I've been keeping a diary for thirty-three years and write in it every morning. Most of it's just whining, but every so often there'll be something I can use later: a joke, a description, a quote. It's an invaluable aid when it comes to winning arguments. 'That's not what you said on February 3, 1996,' I'll say to someone.”

“Here is how you know someone has had a good idea: Other people freely admit to their friends that said idea has changed their lives. Most people today will grant that fire and the wheel are the big two. After that, any attempts to rank the greatest ideas of all time are going to draw lots of argument. You’ll have zealots pimping this god or that on the one hand, scientists pimping Darwin on the other, and then practical people pointing at written language and saying, look, fellas, the reason those ideas have gone viral is because someone figured out how to write them down.”

Source: The Iron Druid Chronicles 6-Book Bundle: Hounded, Hexed, Hammered, Tricked, Trapped, Hunted

“Men write many fine and plausible arguments in support of monarchy, but the fact remains that where every man has a voice, brutal laws are impossible”

Men Writing Facts Law Political Voice Support Impossible Fine Argument Remains Witty Every Man Brutal Monarchy Plausible

Author:Mark Twain

“There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as one can. The best argument is an undeniably good book.”

Way Writing Wells Book Enemy Argument Defeat One Way Sunset Good Book Defeating The Enemy

Book:Saul Bellow: Letters

Source: Saul Bellow: Letters

“The writings of leading ID proponents reveal that the designer postulated by their argument is the God of Christianity.”

Writing Religion Christianity Atheism Argument Designer

Author:John E. Jones III

“A novel should be an experience and convey an emotional truth rather than arguments.”

Should Writing Novel Emotional Argument Crafts

Book:Selected essays

Source: Selected essays

“All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction can't be thoughtful, or present some interesting or provocative ideas to make us think. But if you want to present an intellectual argument, nonfiction is a better tool. You can drive a nail with a shoe but a hammer is a better tool for that. But fiction is about emotional resonance, about making us feel things on a primal and visceral level.”

“Both law and comedy are heavily focused on thought and viewing all angles. To write a good joke, you have to look at a premise every way possible. And with a good legal argument, you have to see all sides to get the best line of argument for your client. Law school made me a better comic, and comedy has made me a better public speaker.”

Way Writing Looks Made School Law Sides Lines Comedy Jokes Argument Focused Comic Performing Speakers Clients Angle Premises Law School

Author:Troy Walker

“If my choice is to, I don’t know, be with a lot of men, or if I enjoy a really physical relationship, I don’t think that’s necessarily being anti-feminist. For me the argument of feminism never really should have come into the picture. Because I don’t know too much about the history of feminism, and so I’m not really a relevant person to bring into the conversation. Everything I was writing was so autobiographical, it could really only be a personal analysis.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Men Should Writing Persons Choices Enjoy Too Much Feminism Conversation Argument Should Have Feminist Analysis Relevant Anti Feminist

Author:Lana Del Rey

“What do you know about me, given that I believe in secrecy? ... If I stick where I am, if I don't travel around, like anyone else I make my inner journeys that I can only measure by my emotions, and express very obliquely and circuitously in what I write. ... Arguments from one's own privileged experience are bad and reactionary arguments.”

Ifs Knows Writing Believe I Can Given I Believe Emotion Journey Argument Sticks I Believe In Do You Know Privileged Secrecy Reactionaries Inner Journey

Author:Gilles Deleuze

Argument Quotes

Related topics

Argument Quotes