Edwin Hubbel Chapin Quotes

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

Logic is the technique by which we add conviction to truth.

Submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust.

I'm more pompous and self-assured and determined that if - you know - if the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed.

The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.

The most obdurate incredulity may be shamed or silenced by facts.

The truth is always the strongest argument.

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

… the thug is aware that loudness convinces 60 persons where reasoning convinces but one..

In order to make a good speech you must have something to say and you have to believe it.

I never misrepresent my position - you've got to be strong enough to make the argument and marshal the case.

I enjoy a good reasoned argument. I love the power of logic.

I consider myself to be quite persuasive when I want.

You can win as long as you chose your battles. You can win more arguments then you might think as a writer, even though you legally have no recourse, and your script can get muddied and altered in any way possible. You can use reason, logic, and passion to argue persuasively for a case in your favor. So what I've learned is to just basically not buckle - not be belligerent, not be angry, not throw fits, but just not buckle.

'Speak when you're spoken to!' The Queen sharply interrupted her. 'But if everybody obeyed that rule,' said Alice, who was always ready for a little argument, 'and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for you to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything, so that - ' 'Ridiculous!' cried the Queen. 'Why, don't you see, child - ' here she broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly changed the subject of the conversation.

A loud voice is not always angry; a soft voice not always to be dismissed; and a well-placed silence can be the indisputable last word.

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.

...sensation of rightness, of saying the right thing atthe right time to the right person, that too-raresensation of having the right thing to say and believing it.

Honesty is one part of eloquence. We persuade others by being in earnest ourselves.

People may refuse to see the truth of our arguments, but they cannot evade the evidence of a holy life.

[M]ere knowledge of the truth will not give you the art of persuasion.