Herein is the first submission not my own. These are the words of Gaul/Frenchman Michel de Montaigne from his "autobiography" of sorts,
Essays. Enjoy it, if you will, for its concept--nearly 500 years old.
On the topic of Conversation, he writes:
Contradictions of opinion, therefore, neither offend nor estrange me; they only arouse and exercise my mind. We run away from correction; we ought to court it and expose ourselves to it, especially when it comes in the shape of discussion, not of a school lesson. Each time we meet with opposition, we consider not whether it is just, but how, wrongly or rightly, we can rebut it. Instead of opening our arms to it, we greet it with our claws. I could stand a rough shaking from my friends: "you are a fool, you're talking nonsense." In good company, I like expression to be bold, and men to say what they think. We must strengthen our ears and harden them against any weakness for the ceremonious use of words. I like the strong and manly acquaintanceships and society, a friendship that prides itself on the sharpness and vigor of its dealings. I like love that bites and scratches till the blood comes. It is not vigorous and free enough if it is not quarrelsome, if it is polite and artificial, if it is afraid of shocks, and is constrained in its ways: 'for there can be no discussion without contradiction'.
The quotation in the last line is from Cicero, De Finibus, I, viii.
