An ancient sage once said, “A soft answer turns away anger.

A gentle answer turns away wrath.

Times relieves the foolish from sorrow, but reason relieves the wise

He who replies to words of doubt
doth put the light of knowledge out.

A word to the wise is enough.

He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Good wits jump; a word to the wise is enough.

When all else fails, men turn to reason.

for the truth may run fine but will not break, and always rises above falsehood as oil above water;

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

The man resolved, and steady to his trust, Inflexible to ill, and obstinately just, May the rude rabble's insolence despise, Their senseless clamours and tumultuous cries; The tyrant's fierceness he beguiles, And the stern brow, and the harsh voice defies, And with superior greatness smiles.

...for literature had always been a solace for him, something that the ugliness of facts could not spoil.

He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience;
Backed his opinion with quotations.

A cultivated wit, one that badgers less, can persuade all the more. Artful ridicule can address contentious issues more competently and vigorously than can severity alone.