L'arte di ottenere ragione/Stratagemma XIII/en

Stratagem XIII

To make your opponent accept a proposition, you must give him the counter-proposition as well, leaving him his choice of the two; and you must render the contrast as glaring as you can, so that to avoid being paradoxical he will accept the proposition, which is thus made to look quite probable. For instance, if you want to make him admit that a boy must do everything that his father tells him to do, ask him "whether in all things we must obey or disobey our parents". Or, if a thing is said to occur "often," ash whether by "often" you are to understand few or many cases; and he will say "many". It is as though you were to put grey next black, and call it white; or next white, and call it black.