Academic Quote by Noam Chomsky

Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.

— David Crystal

Our whole educational system, from the elementary schools to the universities, is increasingly turning out people who have never heard enough conflicting arguments to…

— Thomas Sowell

Persons not habituated to reason often argue absurdly, because, from particular instances, they deduce general conclusions, and extend the result of their limited experience…

— Maria Edgeworth

“The goal of argumentation is to make a case so forceful (note the metaphor) that skeptics are coerced into believing it—they are powerless to…

— Steven Pinker

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

— Oscar Wilde

“The lack of metacognition sets up a vicious loop, in which people who don’t know much about a subject do not know when they’re…

— Thomas M. Nichols

“An expert whose argument reeks of restraint or nuance often doesn't get much attention.”

— Steven D. Levitt

Complexity and profundity have been equated by the academic culture just as fame and significance have been conflated by the popular culture. Fame and…

— Dennis Prager

When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably)…

— Stephen Jay Gould

“Back to the root of the word “profundity,” it means insightful and understanding.”

— Pearl Zhu

Arrogance, pedantry, and dogmatism...the occupational diseases of those who spend their lives directing the intellects of the young.

— Anonymous

“Intellectuals are the kind of people who demand evidence and are shocked by logical inconsistencies and fallacies. They regard oversimplification as the original sin…

— Aldous Huxley