A man resorts to dialectics only when he has no other means to hand.
 Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (1889). copy citation

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Author Friedrich Nietzsche
Source Twilight of the Idols
Topic meaning
Date 1889
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Anthony M. Ludovici
Weblink https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52263/52263-h/52263-h.htm

Context

“Wherever authority still belongs to good usage, wherever men do not prove but command, the dialectician is regarded as a sort of clown. People laugh at him, they do not take him seriously. Socrates was a clown who succeeded in making men take him seriously: what then was the matter? 6 A man resorts to dialectics only when he has no other means to hand. People know that they excite suspicion with it and that it is not very convincing. Nothing is more easily dispelled than a dialectical effect: this is proved by the experience of every [Pg 13] gathering in which discussions are held.” source