Argumentative Tactics Quotes

When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff.

If you can't answer a man's arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

I'm a charming coward; I fight with words.

Before impugning an opponent's motives, even when they legitimately may be impugned, answer his arguments.

You can't shut somebody up by losing.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

In a debate, rather pull to pieces the argument of thy antagonists than offer him any of thy own; for thus thou wilt fight him in his own country.

There is only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument—and that is to avoid it.

Some people throw a bit of their personality after their bad arguments, as if that might straighten their paths and turn them into right and good arguments-just as a man in a bowling alley, after he has let go of the ball, still tries to direct it with gestures.

CBS's Major Garrett writes in 'National Journal' about a new version of the 'stray voltage' theory of communication in which the president purposefully overstates his case knowing that it will create controversy.

Whenever people are being intellectually dishonest in debate, it is an implicit concession they have lost the fight

I often debate liberals on Fox News Channel who tend to start yelling and attacking when they run out of facts or common sense. I suppose these folks figure if they bow up and get in our faces, we'll just back down and see the world their way.

If you can't win by reason, go for volume.

The partisan when he is engaged in a dispute, cares nothing about the rights of the question, but is anxious only to convince his hearers of his own assertions.

They dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience.

I am consistently amazed at Sean Hannity's inability to host his own show. He's a dear, dear man - a very nice person... these liberals who aren't even that smart just come in and absolutely bulldoze him like a child.

In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?