Quotes About Rhetoric

Because a thing is eloquently expressed it should not be taken to be as necessarily true; nor because it is uttered with stammering lips should it be supposed false.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

In good speaking, should not the mind of the speaker know the truth of the matter about which he is to speak.

Objective truth itself is sometimes often seen as a right wing Republican-Christian plot to take over the government (though the rhetoric is cleverer than that, that's the bottom line).

Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth

Barack Obama isn't the first politician to break a promise, torture the truth or outright lie to the American people. But, he certainly is among the most accomplished at it.

A man avails himself of the truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it.

If the truth were self-evident, eloquence would be unnecessary.

It seems that the first victim of an Obama campaign is the truth. It seems that the first victim of an Obama campaign is the truth.

Truth was a tool. It should never simply be said. No, it had to be bent, twisted, colored, until it became a weapon.

Why tell me that a man is a fine speaker, if it is not the truth that he is speaking?

Debating is not an honest intellectual exercise. It's like a trial in which the goal is not to get to the truth but to win.

There wasn't any more truth in over half of what any so-called orator said. If it wasn't a Deliberate Lie, why it was an Exaggerated Falsehood.

In public speaking, we must appeal either to the prejudices of others, or to the love of truth and justice. If we think merely of displaying our own ability, we shall ruin every cause we undertake.

I know every politician spins the truth a little.

Repeat a lie a thousand times and it become a successful political campaign.

In time of war, truth is always replaced by propaganda.

I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them

The most elegant speeches may sway the hearts and minds of men, but not one ever stopped a bullet.

On the contrary: the advantage of a role-reversal story is that it may enable us to examine aspects concealed by traditional responses and conventional rhetoric.

Isn't it rather terrible that what brings the pricking behind my eyelids is not old Eddy's death, or even the thought of human mortality in general, but certain strokes of rhetoric – certain alliterations, repetitions, and verbal sonorities which don't hold any literal meaning for me? I'm more moved by literature than by what it describes!

Preachers delivered sermons on the Constitution, pro and con.

What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power. Nothing much of lasting value ever happens at the head table, held together by a familiar rhetoric. Those who already have power continue to glide along the familiar rut they have made for themselves.

We have Democrats saying dumb things every single day, and Republicans as well.