“A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one.”
Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk : How We Defeat Ourselves by the Way We Talk and What to do About It (1976)
A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God (1908)
Context: An "Argument" is any process of thought reasonably tending to produce a definite belief. An "Argumentation" is an Argument proceeding upon definitely formulated premisses.
If God Really be, and be benign, then, in view of the generally conceded truth that religion, were it but proved, would be a good outweighing all others, we should naturally expect that there would be some Argument for His Reality that should be obvious to all minds, high and low alike, that should earnestly strive to find the truth of the matter; and further, that this Argument should present its conclusion, not as a proposition of metaphysical theology, but in a form directly applicable to the conduct of life, and full of nutrition for man's highest growth. What I shall refer to as the N. A. — the Neglected Argument — seems to me best to fulfil this condition, and I should not wonder if the majority of those whose own reflections have harvested belief in God must bless the radiance of the N. A. for that wealth. Its persuasiveness is no less than extraordinary; while it is not unknown to anybody. Nevertheless, of all those theologians (within my little range of reading) who, with commendable assiduity, scrape together all the sound reasons they can find or concoct to prove the first proposition of theology, few mention this one, and they most briefly. They probably share those current notions of logic which recognise no other Arguments than Argumentations.
“A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one.”
Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk : How We Defeat Ourselves by the Way We Talk and What to do About It (1976)
“The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who's winning an argument with a liberal.”
Source: Today’s Letter: A VDARE.COM Contributor Worries About Smears; Peter Brimelow Reassures Him. https://archive.is/20120529012624/www.vdare.com/letters/tl_090503.htm
“Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments.”
The Rickover Effect (1992)
Context: Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.
“All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.”
On the subject of ghosts, March 31, 1778, p. 373
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Source: 1950s, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), p. 220
Source: Vamps and Tramps (1994), "No Law in the Arena: A Pagan Theory of Sexuality", p. 65
“Arguments hardly affect the faithful- their beliefs have an entirely different foundation.”
pg 212.
Conquest of Abundance (2001 [posthumous])
“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”
Episode one: "Shadows of Doubt".
Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief (2004)