Samuel Butler Quotes

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

Samuel Butler

• Argument
• Irony
• Sarcasm

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Quotes to Explore

• Tolerance, openness to argument, openness to self-doubt, willingness to see other people's points of view - these are very liberal and enlightened values that people are right to hold, but we can't allow them to delude us to the point where we can't recognise people who are needlessly perpetrating human misery.

  

  Sam Harris
  • People
  • Doubt
  • Values

• Well, it'd certainly be fascinating if we discovered that gays were better at being married than heterosexuals are. Talk about irony.

  

  Gail Collins
  • Better
  • Talk
  • Irony

• I've learned not to hide behind a veil of irony - to talk about my work in a more honest way.

  

  Florence Welch Florence and the Machine
  • Work
  • Talk
  • Irony

• I can make the argument that people who don't have the biggest ranges but have very unique voices, even if they may be pitchy at times... with the right record that's really unique and distinct, they can have big hits.

  

  Kara DioGuardi
  • People
  • May
  • Unique

• Avoid sarcasm. Don't insist on the last word.

  Ford Frick
  • Word
  • Last
  • Sarcasm

• The strangest thing about the low quality of Internet argument is that effective argument isn't really so difficult. Sure, not everyone can be Clarence Darrow, but anyone who wants to be at least competent at argument can do it.

  

  Barry Eisler
  • Quality
  • Argument
  • Effective

• I'm not going to get in to an argument with anyone about the relative merits of Judaism and Christianity, and what it means for a Jewish kid to be a Christian - I'm just not interested in that argument.

  

  T Bone Burnett
  • Christian
  • Just
  • Argument

• Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.

  

  E. O. Wilson
  • Blessed
  • Enemies
  • Brilliant

• Euclid taught me that without assumptions there is no proof. Therefore, in any argument, examine the assumptions.

  

  E. T. Bell
  • Argument
  • Taught
  • Proof

• As a former writer for the 'National Lampoon,' I've probably contributed to the sea of sarcasm in which we live.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Live
  • Sea
  • Sarcasm

• There is something about guns that inhibits understanding. It is not just that they can put an end to argument. They somehow generate beliefs that are obviously contrary to observable fact.

  

  Edmund Morgan
  • Understanding
  • End
  • Argument

• We should try to understand our innermost needs. We shouldn't use irony to reduce their power.

  

  Manuel Puig
  • Power
  • Understand
  • Irony

• I used to buy into a former Supreme Court justice's argument that you can't scream fire in a crowded theater. Well, I think you can.

  

  Larry Flynt
  • Justice
  • Fire
  • Argument

• Pentagon dollars are essentially seen as a different kind of funding that doesn't have to stand for itself and make an argument for itself in the house of Congress.

  

  Rachel Maddow
  • Different
  • House
  • Kind

• I was having an argument with my stepfather, and he was like, 'Why don't you join the Marine Corps?' And I was like, 'Noooo! Well, maybe, actually... ' I went and saw the recruiter, who was like, 'Are you on the run from the cops? Because we've never had someone want to leave so fast.'

  

  Adam Driver
  • Why
  • Want
  • Argument

• Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

  

  Baltasar Gracian
  • Taken
  • Just
  • Argument

• If you pick up an eighteenth-century play, at the top it says 'The Argument,' and then you have a list of characters, and then you have the play. I was just always struck by that - that, of course, good drama is about conflict.

  

  Damian Lewis
  • Up
  • Good
  • Drama

• The great irony to Dirk [Gently] is that he sees connections in everything, but the one thing he fails and struggles with most is connecting with other people.

  

  Samuel Barnett
  • People
  • Great
  • Struggle

• If the argument is that failure helps you succeed, well, so does success and it’s quicker. This suggests at least one reason for trying to succeed.

  

  Norman Geras
  • Reason
  • Succeed
  • Argument

• On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its great intellects.

  

  Karl Marx
  • Great
  • Simple
  • Present

• But a science is exact to the extent that its method measures up to and is adequate to its object.

  

  Gabriel Marcel
  • Up
  • Science
  • Method

• As children's inquiries are not to be slighted, so also great care is to be taken, that they never receive deceitful and illuding answers. They easily perceive when they are slighted or deceived, and quickly learn the trick of neglect, dissimulation, and falsehood, which they observe others to make use of. We are not to intrench upon truth in any conversation, but least of all with children; since, if we play false with them, we not only deceive their expectation, and hinder their knowledge, but corrupt their innocence, and teach them the worst of vices.

  

  John Locke Nazareth
  • Knowledge
  • Teach
  • Answers

• Living with Bernard Leach, who thought about pottery 24 hours a day, was a fantastic experience, and we really began to get inside his mind and understand what had motivated him to work all his life as a potter.

  

  Warren MacKenzie
  • Mind
  • Hours
  • Motivated

• Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Argument
  • Irony
  • Sarcasm