For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument, that makes a poem,--a thought so passionate and alive, that, like the spirit of... a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Like most vigorous-minded men, seeing that there was no stopping-place between dogma and negation, he preferred to accept dogma. O...f all weaknesses he most disliked timed and half-hearted faith. He would rather have jumped at once to Strong's pure denial, than yield an inch to the argument that a mystery was to be paltered with because it could not be explained.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a Kelton church, when a heated argument once began at morning services, a devout old deacon arose from his seat in the 'amen co...rner' and announced he was going to do for the church what the devil had never done--leave it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...I didn't consider intellectuals intelligent, I never liked them or their thoughts about life. I defined them as people who care... nothing for argument, who are interested only in information; or as people who have a preference for learning things rather than experiencing them. They have opinions but no point of view.... Their talk is the gloomiest type of human discourse I know.... This is a red flag to my nature. Intellectuals, to me have no natures ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Argument is conclusive ... but ... it does not remove doubt, so that the mind may rest in the sure knowledge of the truth, unless ...it finds it by the method of experiment.... For if any man who never saw fire proved by satisfactory arguments that fire burns ... his hearer's mind would never be satisfied, nor would he avoid the fire until he put his hand in it ... that he might learn by experiment what argument taught.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Edith: This complete loveliness will fade. And we shall forget what it was like. Edward: Edith, don't.... Edith: Oh, it's bound to. Just a few years and the gilt wears off the gingerbread. Edward: Darling, answer me one thing truthfully. Have you ever seen gingerbread with gilt on it? Edith: [laughing] Fool! Edward: Then the whole argument is disposed of.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which come from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originall...y to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Advertising could not be understood as simply another form of salesmanship. It aimed at something new--the creation of consumption... communities.... The primary argument of the salesman was personal and private: this hat is perfect for you (singular). His focus was on the individual; he succeeded when he cajoled, flattered, managed, and overwhelmed a particular buyer's ego. The primary argument of the advertisement was public and general: This hat is perfect for you (plural). While the salesman persuaded the customer that the item was peculiarly suited to his unique needs, the advertisement persuaded groups of buyers that the item was well suited to the needs of all persons in the group. The advertisement succeeded when it discovered, defined, and persuaded a new community of consumers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »