Quotes About Rhetoric

Nobody with an IQ higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that 'death panels' would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment, it's hard to beat Sarah Palin's ignorant nattering on the subject.

To be free, one must have the critical-thinking skills that inoculate against the alluring rhetoric that pervades contemporary society, rhetoric that is constantly seeking to undermine freedom for the sake of varied narrow interests. It is an old story, and Daniel Scoggin, the CEO of Great Hearts, recognizes this reality when he reminds his constituency that "each generation must earn its freedom anew".

The Church does not depend on power, social prestige, rhetorical manipulation, or human-designed programs. All it has are the Word and Sacraments, which, though they seem weak to the world and to all theologies of glory, in fact carry the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit.

Interviewed many years later about the impact upon him of Lenin's writings, Ho's stilted language could not disguise his initial excitement: "What emotion, enthusiasm, clear-sightedness and confidence it instilled in me! I was overjoyed to tears. Though sitting alone in my room, I shouted aloud as if addressing large crowds: 'Dear martyrs, compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to liberation.

It's important that these people think of their adversaries specifically as assholes. That's what gives the modern rhetoric of polarization its singular stamp and makes it different from the execrations of other ages. Seeing our antagonists as assholes means, for one thing, that the enmity is personal. (189)

Every communication is rhetorical because it uses some technique to affect the beliefs, actions, or emotions of an audience.

A politician's words reveal less about what he thinks about his subject than what he thinks about his audience.

Talk about presidents "taking" the country hither and yon is part of the foam of presidential elections.

Bushism is Reaganism minus the passion for freedom.

Recent presidents have gone off on ad hoc adventures. They have set unattainable goal because they have framed the issue incorrectly, as they believed their own rhetoric.

There are those who wrap themselves in flags and blow the tinny trumpet of patriotism as a means of fooling the people.

I did not know then that words and music are more deadly than any spear.

The most important thing to do is to make the judge want to decide things your way, Darrow advised one of his younger partners. They are human beings, moved by the same things that move other human beings. The point of law merely give the judge a reason for doing what you have already made him want to do.

Lord Dorwin, gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't say one damned thing, and said it so you never noticed.

Now, Rahul Gandhi has offered Rs 72,000 per annum scheme to every poor person in India. It is a miracle scheme. While Modi failed to give Rs 15 lakh he promised to every poor person, Congress will fulfil its promise as it did earlier. That is why Rahul Gandhi is hero while Modi is zero.

Every man in it is a great man, an orator, a critic, a statesman; and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities.

Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.

The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings to judge.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

He (Winston Churchill) mobilized the English language and sent it into battle to steady his fellow countrymen. . . .

Most of what is said by candidates on the right is half-baked truths and fabrications coated in 'patriotism or family values.'

As long as inequality and other social problems plague us, populists will try to exploit them.

You can't be elected president without passing though Iowa and bowing down before corn-based ethanol, before agricultural subsidies. I mean, even McCain was a critic of ethanol, but when he got to Iowa, he was singing a different tune.

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.