“What good would it be to discuss such a proposition, when force could destroy the best arguments?”
A quoi bon discuter une proposition semblable, quand la force peut détruire les meilleurs arguments.
Part I, ch. X: The Man of the Seas
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
Original
A quoi bon discuter une proposition semblable, quand la force peut détruire les meilleurs arguments.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
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Jules Verne 44
French novelist, poet and playwright 1828–1905Related quotes

“A good symbol is the best argument, and is a missionary to persuade thousands.”
Poetry and Imagination
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)
“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance.”
As quoted in The School Day Begins : A Guide to Opening Exercises, Grades Kindergarten - 12 (1967) by Agnes Krarup

“The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.”

Source: I See Satan Fall Like Lightning

Part 2 “Four Subjective Arguments”, Chapter 2 “The Argument from Prophecy (and the Bible Codes)” (p. 63)
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

On the closure of the Senate to discuss intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq (1 November 2005), as quoted in The Associated Press (1 November 2005).
2000s
Tweeted on June 20, 2020 https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/status/1274452143886553091, repeated subsequently.