No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.

No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.

Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology.

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

We have become makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

The conspiracy theory of society comes from abandoning god and then asking Who is in his place.

Every discovery contains an irrational element or a creative intuition.

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

It is complete nihilism to propose laying down arms in a world where atom bombs are around. It is very simple: there is no way of achieving peace other than with weapons.

The best argument for mutual funds is that they offer safety and diversification. But they don't necessarily offer safety and diversification.

I'd like to do policy and I'd like to do philosophy, I'd like to be able to get into the depth, into the meat of the argument - that's the kind of stuff I want to do.

The methods of peace propaganda which aim at establishing peace doctrine by argument and by creating a feeling favorable to peace in general seem to fall short of reaching the springs of human action and of dealing with the causes of the conduct which they seek to modify.

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

Theses officers were good friends, so it must have been a terrible argument, because the one who played chess with my father was so angry that he walked over to the dentist's house and got the dentist out of bed and shot him.

A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.

Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.

If you feel yourself to be above the mass, speak so as to raise the mass to the height of your argument.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.

One could drive a prairie schooner through any part of his argument and never scrape against a fact.

History is full of really good stories. That's the main reason I got into this racket: I want to make the argument that history is interesting.

Another argument, vaguer and even less persuasive, is that gay marriage somehow does harm to heterosexual marriage. I have yet to meet anyone who can explain to me what this means. In what way would allowing same-sex partners to marry diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples?

Given the difficulty of resisting such temptations over the longer run, a proper concern for the welfare of congressional souls may well be the ultimate argument in favor of term limitations.

It depends on the situation. I mean, on one hand there's the argument that people should be left alone on the other hand, there's the argument to wade in a stop slaughters in places like Bosnia and Kosovo and what we probably should have done in Rwanda.

The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the right.

I passionately believe that's it's not just what you say that counts, it's also how you say it - that the success of your argument critically depends on your manner of presenting it.

It's all very boring to say that we get along great and all that and sometimes we mock up come aggravation to make it interesting but the truth of it is that we get along so well we've never had an argument.

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

But black people fall for that same argument, and they go around talking about law breakers. We did not make the laws in this country. We are neither morally nor legally confined to those laws. Those laws that keep them up, keep us down.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

Silence is argument carried out by other means.

If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure.

Be able to analyze statistics, which can be used to support or undercut almost any argument.

As set forth by theologians, the idea of 'God' is an argument that assumes its own conclusions, and proves nothing.

Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.

The best way to win an argument is to begin by being right.

I do not have a brain that I long for in dealing with matters of which I am ignorant, that don't come within my ken and a rationale, a reason, and argument and so on, and I can't do that and I'm not in that bracket at all.

The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it.

The most powerful argument of all for saving open space is economics; in most states, tourism is the number two industry.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; an argument an exchange of ignorance.