diff --git a/dev/archery/archery/cli.py b/dev/archery/archery/cli.py
index e7dcc819500f..3f8bc3a3c904 100644
--- a/dev/archery/archery/cli.py
+++ b/dev/archery/archery/cli.py
@@ -65,9 +65,10 @@ def _run_metadata(ctx):
 
 
 @click.group(context_settings={"help_option_names": ["-h", "--help"]})
-@click.option("--debug", type=BOOL, is_flag=True, default=False,
+@click.option("--debug", type=BOOL, is_flag=True, default=None,
               envvar='ARCHERY_DEBUG',
-              help="Increase logging with debugging output.")
+              help="Increase logging with debugging output "
+                   "(enabled by default for Docker commands).")
 @click.option("--pdb", type=BOOL, is_flag=True, default=False,
               help="Invoke pdb on uncaught exception.")
 @click.option("-q", "--quiet", type=BOOL, is_flag=True, default=False,
@@ -83,6 +84,8 @@ def archery(ctx, debug, pdb, quiet):
     ctx.ensure_object(dict)
 
     log_ctx.quiet = quiet
+    if debug is None:
+        debug = ctx.invoked_subcommand == 'docker' and not quiet
     if debug:
         logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
 
diff --git a/dev/archery/archery/docker/tests/test_docker_cli.py b/dev/archery/archery/docker/tests/test_docker_cli.py
index c117a3edfff6..eb2f83498d5b 100644
--- a/dev/archery/archery/docker/tests/test_docker_cli.py
+++ b/dev/archery/archery/docker/tests/test_docker_cli.py
@@ -15,12 +15,87 @@
 # specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
+import logging
+import os
+from subprocess import CompletedProcess, PIPE
 from unittest.mock import patch
 
+import pytest
+
 from click.testing import CliRunner
 
+from archery.cli import archery
 from archery.docker import DockerCompose
 from archery.docker.cli import docker
+from archery.utils.logger import ctx as log_ctx, logger
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(('options', 'debug_env', 'debug'), [
+    ([], None, True),
+    ([], '1', True),
+    ([], '0', False),
+    ([], 'false', False),
+    ([], 'OFF', False),
+    (['--quiet'], None, False),
+    (['--debug'], '0', True),
+    (['--debug', '--quiet'], None, True),
+    (['--quiet'], '1', True),
+])
+def test_docker_debug_output(options, debug_env, debug, tmp_path,
+                             monkeypatch, caplog):
+    monkeypatch.delenv('ARCHERY_DEBUG', raising=False)
+    if debug_env is not None:
+        monkeypatch.setenv('ARCHERY_DEBUG', debug_env)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(log_ctx, 'quiet', False)
+    (tmp_path / 'cpp').mkdir()
+    (tmp_path / 'cpp' / 'CMakeLists.txt').touch()
+    config = '''
+x-hierarchy:
+  - test
+services:
+  test:
+    image: test
+    build:
+      context: .
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+'''
+    (tmp_path / 'compose.yaml').write_text(config)
+    args = options + ['docker', '--src', str(tmp_path),
+                      'build', '--no-pull', 'test']
+
+    with caplog.at_level(logging.DEBUG, logger='archery'):
+        logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+        with patch('subprocess.run', return_value=CompletedProcess(
+                [], 0, stdout=config.encode(), stderr=b'')) as run:
+            result = CliRunner().invoke(archery, args)
+
+    assert result.exit_code == 0, result.output
+    calls = run.call_args_list
+    assert any(call.args[0] == ['docker', 'version']
+               for call in calls) is debug
+    build = next(call for call in calls if 'build' in call.args[0])
+    assert ('--progress=plain' in build.args[0]) is (debug and os.name != 'nt')
+    assert (build.kwargs.get('stdout') == PIPE) is ('--quiet' in options)
+    assert any(record.name == 'archery' and record.levelno == logging.DEBUG
+               and 'Executing' in record.message
+               for record in caplog.records) is debug
+
+
+def test_non_docker_debug_default(monkeypatch, caplog):
+    monkeypatch.delenv('ARCHERY_DEBUG', raising=False)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(log_ctx, 'quiet', False)
+    with caplog.at_level(logging.DEBUG, logger='archery'):
+        logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
+        with patch('archery.linking.check_dynamic_library_dependencies',
+                   side_effect=lambda *args, **kwargs:
+                   logger.debug('Checking dependencies')) as check:
+            result = CliRunner().invoke(
+                archery, ['linking', 'check-dependencies', 'somelib.so'])
+
+    assert result.exit_code == 0, result.output
+    check.assert_called_once()
+    assert not any(record.message == 'Checking dependencies'
+                   for record in caplog.records)
 
 
 @patch.object(DockerCompose, "pull")
diff --git a/docs/source/developers/continuous_integration/docker.rst b/docs/source/developers/continuous_integration/docker.rst
index 5b02bfe5be7f..56fd7f9aa1d4 100644
--- a/docs/source/developers/continuous_integration/docker.rst
+++ b/docs/source/developers/continuous_integration/docker.rst
@@ -156,17 +156,23 @@ The following example starts an interactive ``bash`` session in the container
 
     archery docker run ubuntu-cpp bash
 
-**Build the image with increased debugging output:**
+**Control debugging output:**
 
-To enable additional logging output for debugging, pass the ``--debug`` flag
-to ``archery``.
+Archery Docker commands enable debugging output by default. This includes
+``DEBUG``-level logging and passing ``--progress=plain`` to the
+docker(-compose) build command on non-Windows systems.
+
+To disable debugging output, set ``ARCHERY_DEBUG=0``:
 
 .. code:: bash
 
-    archery --debug docker run ubuntu-cpp
+    ARCHERY_DEBUG=0 archery docker run ubuntu-cpp
+
+To silence executed commands as well, pass ``--quiet`` to ``archery``:
+
+.. code:: bash
 
-In addition to enabling ``DEBUG``-level logging, this also translates to
-passing ``--progress=plain`` to docker(-compose) build command.
+    archery --quiet docker run ubuntu-cpp
 
 Docker Volume Caches
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~