Aristotle Quotes

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

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.

Debates require a lot of hard work and preparation. If you try to wing it, it shows.

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

Neither irony nor sarcasm is argument.

I'm going to be a guy who can defend a bunch of different positions.

I was on the debate team.

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

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.

When you get me a good man made out of arguments, I will get you a good dinner with reading you the cookery book.

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

It is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though perhaps a meretricious, effect.

By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result?

Oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments and putting better in their place.

There's nothing like a debate to teach one quickness. I often wish I had gone in for them when I was a youngster. It would have helped me no end.

A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one.

A lot of people ask me, did debating help me as a writer, and I honestly don't know.

No matter what stage of life you are graduating from or entering, learning how to build and state your case is something every person in the world should know how to do.

False reasoners are often best confuted by giving them the full swing of their own absurdities.

Reason in a creature is a faculty of widening the rules and purposes of the use of all its powers far beyond natural instinct; it acknowledges no limits to its projects. Reason itself does not work instinctively, but requires trial, practice, and instruction in order gradually to progress from one level of insight to another.

Always be willing to look at both sides of the argument. Understanding the other side is the best way to strengthen your own.

I'll argue anyone into the dust when it comes to facts.

But Carroll's were more convoluted, and they struck me as funny in a new way: 1) Babies are illogical. 2) Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile. 3) Illogical persons are despised. Therefore, babies cannot manage crocodiles. And: 1) No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste. 2) No modern poetry is free from affectation. 3) All of your poems are on the subject of soap bubbles. 4) No affected poetry is popular among people of taste. 5) Only a modern poem would be on the subject of soap bubbles. Therefore, all your poems are uninteresting.

The chief effect of talk on any subject is to strengthen one's own opinions, and, in fact, one never knows exactly what he does believe until he is warmed into conviction by the heat of attack and defence.