Quotes about arguments

A discussion is good... a quarrel is better.

And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.

And to save time, shall we pretend we’ve had the argument and I won?

Even the tongue and the teeth cannot cohabit without fighting

What dire offence from amorous causes springs,

What mighty contests rise from trivial things!

Anyway, the mood he was in, Quentin was willing to take any position on any subject with anybody if it meant he could pick a fight.

Avoidance is a passive-aggressive way of expressing that you are tired of showing up. Hoping the problem will go away feels like the safest option, but avoidance is a fear-based response. Avoiding a discussion of our expectations doesn’t prevent conflict. It prolongs the inevitable task of setting boundaries.

It was an example of what he thought of as the Law of Controversy: Passion was inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.

Beyond the realm of simple and verifiable facts, the certainty that “I am right and you are wrong” is a dangerous thing in personal relationships as well as in interactions between nations, tribes, religions, and so on. But if the belief “I am right; you are wrong” is one of the ways in which the ego strengthens itself, if making yourself right and others wrong is a mental dysfunction that perpetuates separation and conflict between human beings...

...the ego's need to be periodically in conflict with something or someone in order to strengthen its sense of separation between me and the other, without which it cannot survive. (Ch 8)

Personal unpleasantness always upset his work; he could not think clearly if his mind was full of hard things that had been said about him, and he liked thinking clearly. Rows frightened him; he would go to considerable lengths to avoid them.

A gun is not an argument.