Page:Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922).djvu/80

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42
ARGUMENT
ARGUMENT
1

The noble Lord (Stanley) was the Prince Rupert to the Parliamentary army—his valour did not always serve his own cause.

Benj. Disraeli. Speech, in the House of Commons, April, 1844.
(See also Bulwer-Lytton)


2

A knock-down argument; 'tis but a word and a blow.

DrydenAmphitryon. Act I. Sc. 1.


3

How agree the kettle and the earthen pot together?

Ecclesiasticus. XIII. 2.


4

The daughter of debate
That still discord doth sow.

 Queen Elizabeth, of Mary Queen of Scots. Sonnet in Percy's Reliques, Vol. I. Bk. V. No. XV. From Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie. London, 1589.


5

Reproachful speech from either side
The want of argument supplied;
They rail, reviled; as often ends
The contests of disputing friends.

GayFables. Ravens. Sexton and Earth Worm. Pt. II. L. 117.


6

I always admired Mrs. Grote's saying that politics and theology were the only two really great subjects.

Gladstone —Letter to Lord Rosebery. Sept. 16, 1880. See Morley's Life of Gladstone. Bk.VIII. Ch. I.


7

His conduct still right with his argument wrong.

GoldsmithRetaliation L. 46


8

In arguing, too, the parson own'd his skill,
For even though vanquished he could argue still.

GoldsmithThe Deserted Village. L. 211.


9

I find you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too. No, sir, these, I protest you, are too hard for me.

GoldsmithVicar of Wakefield. Ch.VII.
(See also Disraeli, Johnson)


10

Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes
Error a fault, and truth discourtesy.

HerbertTemple. Church Porch. St. 52.


11

I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Samuel JohnsonBoswell's Life of Johnson. (1784)
(See also Goldsmith)


12

Nay, if he take you in hand, sir, with an argument,
He'll bray you in a mortar.

Ben JonsonThe Alchemist. Act II. Sc. 1.


13

Seria risu risum, seriis discutere.

In arguing one should meet serious pleading with humor, and humor with serious pleading.

Gorgias Leontinus Endorsed by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. Bk. III. Ch. XVIII.
(See also Shaftsbury, under Ridicule)


14

There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.

LowellDemocracy and Other Addresses. Democracy.


15

The brilliant chief, irregularly great,
Frank, haughty, rash—the Rupert of debate.

Bulwer-LyttonThe New Timon. Pt. I. (1846)
(See also Disraeli)


16

In argument with men a woman ever
Goes by the worse, whatever be her cause.


17

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door wherein I went.


18

Discors concordia.

Agreeing to differ.

OvidMetamorphoses. I. 433.
(See also Southey)


19

Demosthenes, when taunted by Pytheas that all his arguments "smelled of the lamp," replied, "Yes, but your lamp and mine, my friend, do not witness the same labours."

PlutarchLife of Demosthenes. See also his Life of Timoleon.


20

Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past,
We find our tenets just the same at last.

PopeMoral Essays. Epis. III. L. 15.


21

In some places he draws the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.

Dr. Porson of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, quoted in the Letters to Travis.


22

In argument
Similes are like songs in love:
They must describe; they nothing prove.

PriorAlma. Canto III.


23

One single positive weighs more,
You know, than negatives a score.

PriorEpistle to Fleetwood Shepherd.


24

Soon their crude notions with each other fought;
The adverse sect denied what this had taught;
And he at length the amplest triumph gain'd,
Who contradicted what the last maintain'd.

PriorSolomon. Bk. I. L. 717.


25

The first the Retort Courteous; the second the Quip Modest; the third the Reply Churlish; the fourth the Reproof Valiant; the fifth the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh the Lie Direct.

As You Like It. Act V. Sc. 4. L. 96.