Debate Quotes

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

Exaggeration follows desperation.

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.

I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me.

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.

I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.

Trust the man who hesitates in his speech and is quick and steady in action, but beware of long arguments and long beards.

A great many of those who 'debunk' traditional...values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.

There is only one rule for being a good talker - learn to listen.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance.

The man who says he is willing to meet you halfway is usually a poor judge of distance.

Did you ever notice how difficult it is to argue with someone who is not obsessed with being right?

Arguing is really saying, "If you were really more like me, then I could like you better."

Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so.

The argument is at an end.

Wise men argue causes, and fools decide them.

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.

I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

The absent are easily refuted.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

The partisan, when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.

I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.

Information, usually seen as the precondition of debate, is better understood as its by-product.

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.

I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.

Just as war is freedom's cost, disagreement is freedom's privilege.

When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.

Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.

The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.