'но сами по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения' why 'сами'?

'мы уважаем ваши большие знания, но сами по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения.' (Bulgakov)
This sentence indicates that 'we on this matter hold to a different point of view', I think. In which case, why 'сами', not 'нами'?

нами would indicate the instrumental case, which is outright wrong, because сами is the subject of the но clause of the sentence, therefore you need nominative and a different word for that matter.

Yes, That was a silly mistake...
In which case what I mean is, why сами not мы?

You can easily say мы there, no real problem. Сами is there for style, you know, it's best not to repeat the same word in the same sentence. In colloquial speech people also say things like я сам..., он сам..., она сама..., мы сами... quite often. It's a common construction. You can use мы сами in the но clause of the sentence for that matter.

Я сам! - pretty much means I'll do it myself, like without anyone helping. It's also a common name for kids books that teach how to do simple things.

You can also think that сами in that sentence means "we ourselves".

Thanks, thats pretty comprehensive. It looked to me like a 'style' thing, I wanted to make sure there wasn't some big semantic difference, which it seems there isnt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grafrich

Thanks, thats pretty comprehensive. It looked to me like a 'style' thing, I wanted to make sure there wasn't some big semantic difference, which it seems there isnt.

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There might not be much of a semantic difference, but I assure you, most native speakers would choose сами or мы сами in that case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grafrich

'мы уважаем ваши большие знания, но сами по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения.' (Bulgakov)

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мы is omited before сами for brevity.

It could read "мы уважаем..., но мы сами по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения".
It could also read "мы уважаем..., но мы по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения".
Or, as in your example: "мы уважаем..., но сами по этому вопросу придерживаемся другой точки зрения".

но [мы] сами... = but with regard to us, we...

Okay, thanks. Your last line there probably sums it up. I'll look out for this more as I read on, it ought to turn up quite a lot, I think.