Barry Eisler Quotes

Convincing yourself doesn't win an 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.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

Argument is conclusive … but … it does not remove doubt.

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship. The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship.

Rhetoric is the counterpart of logic; since both are conversant with subjects of such a nature as it is the business of all to have a certain knowledge of, and which belong to no distinct science. Wherefore all men in some way participate of both; since all, to a certain extent, attempt, as well to sift, as to maintain an argument; as well to defend themselves, as to impeach.

That's the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you're never wrong.

Arguing, in the sense of attempting to convince others, has gone out of fashion with conservatives.

I preferred the weapons of dialectic to all the other teachings of philosophy, and armed with these, I chose the conflicts of disputation rather than the trophies of war.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

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

What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you're advancing. If you don't you're as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn't there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

Good argument is intended to persuade another.

I'm not out to convince anybody of anything.

It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.

Arguments, like children, should be like the subject that begets them.

Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.

Let one persuade many, and he becomes confirmed and convinced, and cares for no better evidence.

He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word.

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

Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue them.

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.