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This is a summary of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's "The Art of Controversy"

THIRTY - EIGHT WAYS TO WIN AN ARGUMENT

1 Carry your opponent's proposition beyond its natural limits; exaggerate it.
2 Use different meanings of your opponent's words to refute his argument.
3 Ignore your opponent's proposition, which was intended to refer to some particular thing.
4 Hide your conclusion from your opponent until the end.
5 Use your opponent's beliefs against him.
6 Confuse the issue by changing your opponent's words or what he or she seeks to prove.
7 State your proposition and show the truth of it by asking the opponent many questions.
8 Make your opponent angry.
9 Use your opponent's answers to your question to reach different or even opposite conclusions.
10 If you opponent answers all your questions negatively and refuses to grant you any points, ask him or her to concede the opposite of your premises.
11 If the opponent grants you the truth of some of your premises, refrain from asking him or her to agree to your conclusion.
12 If the argument turns upon general ideas with no particular names, you must use language or a metaphor that is favorable to your proposition.
13 To make your opponent accept a proposition , you must give him an opposite, counter-proposition as well.
14 Try to bluff your opponent.
15 If you wish to advance a proposition that is difficult to prove, put it aside for the moment.
16 When your opponent puts forth a proposition, find it inconsistent with his or her other statements, beliefs, actions or lack of action.
17 If your opponent presses you with a counter-proof, you will often be able to save yourself by advancing some subtle distinction.
18 If your opponent has taken up a line of argument that will end in your defeat, you must not allow him to carry it to its conclusion.
19 Should your opponent expressly challenge you to produce any objection to some definite point in his argument, and you have nothing to say, try to make the argument less specific.
20 If your opponent has admitted to all or most of your premises, do not ask him or her directly to accept your conclusion.
21 When your opponent uses an argument that is superficial and you see the falsehood, you can refute it by setting forth its superficial character.
22 If your opponent asks you to admit something from which the point in dispute will immediately follow, you must refuse to do so, declaring that it begs the question.
23 Contradiction and contention irritate a person into exaggerating their statements.
24 State a false syllogism.
25 If your opponent is making a generalization, find an instance to the contrary.
26 A brilliant move is to turn the tables and use your opponent's arguments against himself.
27 Should your opponent suprise you by becoming particularly angry at an argument, you must urge it with all the more zeal.
28 When the audience consists of individuals (or a person) who is not an expert on a subject, you make an invalid objection to your opponent who seems to be defeated in the eyes of the audience.
29 If you find that you are being beaten, you can create a diversion--that is, you can suddenly begin to talk of something else, as though it had a bearing on the matter in dispute.
30 Make an appeal to authority rather than reason.
31 If you know that you have no reply to the arguments that your opponent advances, you by a find stroke of irony declare yourself to be an incompetent judge.
32 A quick way of getting rid of an opponent's assertion, or of throwing suspicion on it, is by putting it into some odious category.
Example: You can say, "That is fascism" or "Atheism" or "Superstition."
In making an objection of this kind you take for granted
1)That the assertion or question is identical with, or at least contained in, the category cited;
and 2)The system referred to has been entirely refuted by the current audience.

33 You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion.
34 When you state a question or an argument, and your opponent gives you no direct answer, or evades it with a counter question, or tries to change the subject, it is sure sign you have touched a weak spot, sometimes without intending to do so.
35 Instead of working on an opponent's intellect or the rigor of his arguments, work on his motive.
36 You may also puzzle and bewilder your opponent by mere bombast.
37 Should your opponent be in the right but, luckily for you, choose a faulty proof, you can easily refute it and then claim that you have refuted the whole position.
38 Become personal, insulting and rude as soon as you perceive that your opponent has the upper hand.

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