Baltasar Gracian Quotes

The difficult part in an argument is not to defend one's opinion but rather to know it.

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it.

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.

Students need to learn how to think critically, how to argue opposing ideas. It is important for them to learn how to think. You can always cook.

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

Know what's important and what isn't. Have the wisdom to know the right thing to do, the integrity to do it, the character to stand up to those who don't, and the courage to stop those who won't.

I tend to solicit opinions from all those around me. I like to hear opinions and the rationale behind it from everybody in the room. Perhaps it's the result of going to law school and using the Socratic method.

He who knows only his own side of the case (argument) knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion

There is more than two sides. Facts are often apart from what both sides say about each other.

When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid—in which case all comment is superfluous—or it is something formidable, the very crux of the problem.

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

An ounce of algebra is worth of a ton of verbal argument.

Being unbiased is a lot like being humble: as soon as you think you are, you aren’t. Neither are a finite state of being but a continuous struggle to not allow our perspectives poison our opinions.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

There's a voice inside children that knows right from wrong. I call it listening to your inner Jiminy Cricket. I tell my daughter, 'If you're thinking this is not the best idea, it probably isn't.'

Philosophy is a performance sport - you have to play it with somebody back and forth.

I love to argue. I've always loved to argue. And I love to point out the weaknesses of the opposing arguments. It may well be that I'm something of a shin kicker. It may well be that I'm something of a contrarian.

If you don't like what someone has to say, argue with them.

I was on the debate team.

As a Jew, I believe that every argument has a counterargument.

Amplify, clarify, and punctuate, and let the viewer draw his or her own conclusion.

I like literature, not opinions. I hate opinions.

It's very important when you are young you don't take sides; you look at everything fresh and see, what is the best thing we can do? For ourselves, for the society in which we live, the country in which we live, the world in which we live, what's the best thing we can do?

I do put my questions in terms of the sharpest polarities of the issue. But I don't want a preponderance of opinion over factual data.