sophistry

in a sentence

He sees that they consistently are doing exactly that which they accuse the Sophists of doing…using emotionally persuasive language for the ulterior purpose of making the weaker argument,  (source) Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974

"I think that smacks of the worst kind of sophistry, frankly," he said, exhaling smoke.  (source) J. D. Salinger, Nine Stories, 1953

It sounded to her like sophistry, or an explanation for its own sake.†  (source) Ian McEwan, Atonement, 2001

The sophists and the hairsplitters enjoy their finest hour.†  (source) Don DeLillo, White Noise, 1985

"Save your sophistry Lucian," said the Inquisitor.†  (source) Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes, 2008

You sound like a sophist, boy.†  (source) Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, 2007

But I felt no need for these sophistries as I sat before my cousin, saw him, freed from his inconclusive struggle with Pindar, in his dark gray suit, his white tie, his scholar's gown; heard his grave tones and, all the time, savored the gillyflowers in full bloom under my windows.†  (source) Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, 1944

How many times had he risen to his feet in the combat, held fast to the rock, leaning against sophism, dragged in the dust, now getting the upper hand of his conscience, again overthrown by it!†  (source) Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, 1862

I had before been moved by the sophisms of the being I had created; I had been struck senseless by his fiendish threats; but now, for the first time, the wickedness of my promise burst upon me; I shuddered to think that future ages might curse me as their pest, whose selfishness had not hesitated to buy its own peace at the price, perhaps, of the existence of the whole human race.†  (source) Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1831

If I lived with you as you desire, I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical — is false.†  (source) Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, 1847

Since I myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates lean towards the errors of non causa and ignoratio elenche.†  (source) Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

Or was she sophistically sensible, with a thrill of pleasure, that by adopting this course for getting rid of him she was ensuring a meeting with him, at any rate, once more?†  (source) Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, 1874

We make the Sophists: He raises up a Socrates to answer them.†  (source) C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, 1942