Quotes About Rhetoric

Whatever we conceive well we express clearly, and words flow with ease.

The art of the parenthesis is one of the great secrets of eloquence in Society.

Politicians are the same the world over: they promise to build a bridge even when there is no river.

That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything.

he still knows how to rouse his rabble, how to reach out to poor people, and sic them on other poor people. How much of this nonsense does he believe, I wonder, and how much does he say just because he knows the value of dividing in order to conquer and to rule?

I mean, that guy who wants to be President, that Jarret, he would call you all heathens or pagans or something." Indeed, he would. "Yes," I said. "He does seem to enjoy calling people things like that. Once he's made everyone who isn't like him sound evil, then he can blame them for problems he knows they didn't cause. That's easier than trying to fix the problems.

Jarret's supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret's talk of making America great again. He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries.

Jarret's supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret's talk of making America great again. He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries. We could

seduced by Jarret's talk of making America great again. He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries.

Shatov stared at me and said, 'Old boy, you don't understand. A member of the Politburo who can speak for forty minutes without notes — he must be a genius!

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.

Politics is the art of saying well that which may or may not be true.

Each side, hypocritical enough to pretend that it lives up to its own hype, is equally insistent that the other side's worst is truly all that it is. American political advertising is sinking slowly toward a level worthy of Soviet propaganda.

Name-calling, insult, ridicule, guilt by association, caricature, innuendo, accusation, denunciation, negative ads, and deceptive and manipulative videos have replaced deliberation and debate. Neither side talks to the other side, only about them; and there is no pretence of democratic engagement, let alone a serious effort at persuasion.

Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.

A conquering army on the border will not be halted by the power of eloquence.

Better pointed bullets than pointed speeches.

hear the language, this English, double-jointed as Bedivere's limbs. It only sounds awkward. In its ability to join one concept to another as with pegs, its dependent clauses, figures of speech and cadenced alliteration, a man can say one thing five ways and yet imply a sixth; can change meaning with an inflection, a pause or a deliberate misuse of a word, can mock, scorn and flay an opponent without uttering one overt insult.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.

arguments are a collage of rhetorical barbs that don't really form a coherent argument.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth.

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke." —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.