Argumentative Quotes

“If you are without contention and still have the ability to make people think, their ego is going to take a hit and as a result they're not going to like you. They don't want to think. They want to be right, unrivaled or entertained.”
― Donna Lynn Hope

“Nothing is more tedious than to talk with persons who treat your most obvious remarks as startling paradoxes and Edward suffered likewise from that passion for argument which is the bad talkers’ substitution for conversation. People who cannot talk are always proud of their dialectic. They want to modify your tritest observations and even if you suggest the day is fine, insist on arguing it out.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs Craddock

“He was a conservative all right, but invariably he gave the impression that he was a conservative because he was surrounded by liberals; that he had been a revolutionist if that had been required in order to be socially disruptive.”
― William F. Buckley, God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of 'Academic Freedom'

“Arguing is the Olympics of talking”
― Stewart Stafford

“...Plato conceived of philosophy as necessarily gregarious rather than solitary. The exposure of presumptions is best done in company, the more argumentative the better. This is why discussion around the table is so essential. This is why philosophy must be argumentative. It proceeds by way of arguments, and the arguments are argued over. Everything is aired in the bracing dialectic wind stirred by many clashing viewpoints. Only in this way can intuitions that have their source in societal or personal idiosyncrasies be exposed and questioned. ... There can be nothing like "Well, that's what I was brought up to believe," or "I just feel that it's right," or "I am privy to an authoritative voice whispering in my ear," or "I'm demonstrably smarter than all of you, so just accept that I know better here." The discussion around the seminar table countenances only the sorts of arguments and considerations that can, in principle, make a claim on everyone who signs on to the project of reason: appealing to, evaluating, and being persuaded by reasons. (pp. 38-39)”
― Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away

“De Bono argues that the West's tradition of settling disagreement by debate or argument is an example of overreliance on logic.”
― Steve Volk, Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn't

“No matter the terrible fighting and shooting in the desert, the riffle fires can never dry the oasis.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

“I worked on Mauna Kea for over five years and saw my health severely degrade during that time. The
two long term summit workers that I knew well died of disease conditions, another worker went on to
commit suicide, and others were argumentative.”
― Steven Magee, Curing Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity

“Never get into a pissin' contest with a skunk." Mary Jo R.”
― Timothy G Cameron

“I worked on Mauna Kea for over five years and saw my health severely degrade during that time. The two long term summit workers that I knew well died of disease conditions, another worker went on to commit suicide, and others were argumentative.”
― Steven Magee