"Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time."
— Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon)

"The business of art lies just in this, -- to make that understood and felt which, in the form of an argument, might be incomprehensible and inaccessible."
— Leo Tolstoy (What Is Art?)

"I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me."
— Dave Barry

"Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence."
— William Blake

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

"You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into."
— Ben Goldacre (Bad Science)

"It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster."
— Voltaire

"Don't start an argument with somebody who has a microphone when you don't. They'll make you look like chopped liver."
— Harlan Ellison

"Argumentation is a human enterprise that is embedded in a larger social and psychological context. This context includes (1) the total psyches of the two persons engaged in dialogue, (2) the relationship between the two persons, (3) the immediate situation in which they find themselves and (4) the larger social, cultural and historical situation surrounding them."
— Peter Kreeft (Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics)

"An argument in apologetics, when actually used in dialogue, is an extension of the arguer. The arguer's tone, sincerity, care, concern, listening, and respect matter as much as his or her logic - probably more. The world was won for Christ not by arguments but by sanctity: "What you are speaks so loud, I can hardly hear what you say.""
— Peter Kreeft (Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics)

""What happened was: they became a team, a family of two. There had been times before they ran away when they acted like a team, but those were very different from feeling like a team. Becoming a team didn't mean the end of their arguments. But it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure, became discussions not threats. To an outsider the arguments would appear to be the same because feeling like part of a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring. You could even call it love. And it is very rarely, indeed, that it happens to two people at the same time-- especially a brother and a sister who had always spent more time with activities than they had with each other.""
— E.L. Konigsburg (From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler)