~ Many can argue; not many converse ~
~ In argument similes are like songs in love; they describe much, but prove nothing ~
~ Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes ~
~ When you let someone else win an argument, often you both end up winners ~
~ It is impossible to win an argument with an ignorant man ~
~ The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right ~
~ An argument derived from the abuse of a thing does not hold good against its use ~
~ Insolence is not logic; epithets are the arguments of malice ~
~ Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him. ~
~ A great many college graduates come here thinking of lawyers as social engineers arguing the great Constitutional issues ~
~ When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change. ~
~ Your friends praise your abilities to the skies, submit to you in argument, and seem to have the greatest deference for you; but, though they may ask it, you never find them following your advice upon their own affairs; nor allowing you to manage your own, without thinking that you should follow theirs. Thus, in fact, they all think themselves wiser than you, whatever they may say. ~